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iULLETlN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, NO. 16. 
ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY. 



RICE IRRIGATION 
IN TEXAS. 



ENTERED IN THE 

POSTOFFICE AT AUSTIN AS MAIL MATTER 

OF THE SECOND-CLASS. 




AUSTIN, TEXAS: 

VON BOECKMANN, SCHUTZE & Cd.. STATF. IMdXTEKS 
190-'. 



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y 




MATAGORDA PUMPING PLANT. 



436- 1002-3 m 

BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, NO. 16. 
ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY. 



RICE IRRIGATION 
IN TEXAS. 



r^tcvv 



vA-O 



L 



ENTERED )N THE 

POSTOFFICE AT AUSTIN AS MAIL MATTER 

OF THE SECOND-CLASS. 




AUSTIN, TEXAS: 

VON BOECKMANN, SOHUTZE & CO., STATE PRINTERS, 
1902. N 



JUL 3 1905 
D. of D, 






LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Win. L. Pmther, President of The University of Texas. 

Sir: I herewith transmit to you a report on the subject of Rice Irri- 
gation in Texas. The report was prepared under the auspices and direc- 
tion of the Hj^drographic Division of the U. S. Geological Survey, and it 
is a part of a report on Irrigation Systems in Texas, which is now going 
through the government press at Washington and will be issued as Water 
Supply Paper No. Tl by the IJ. S. Geological Survey. This report was 
prepared by me while acting as resident hydrographer for Texas, and its 
publication here is with the consent of the Survey. It is just to remark 
that all the expense of the investigation was borne by the United States 
government. 

Respectfully yours, 

Thomas U. Taylor, 
Professor of Civil Engineering.- 
Austin, Texas, October 15, 1903. 



ACKINOWLEDGMEMTS. 



In the preparation of this paper I have received valuable assistance 
from Dr. S. W. Sholars, of Orange, Texas; J. E. Broussard, Beaumont, 
Texas; Willard S. Lovell, Labelle, Texas (on Taylor's Bayou) ; Stonewall 
Tompkins & Co., Mechanical Engineers, Houston, Texas; W. T. Meri- 
wether, Civil Engineer, Eagle Lake, Texas; J. L. Ladd, Editor of the 
Matagorda Tribune; Charles Peterson, Garwood, Texas; and to many 
other friends in the rice belt of Texas. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Fig. 1. Rice Belt of Texas. 

Fig. 2. Horse-power Diagram. 

Fig. 3. Cross-section of Flume. 

Fig. 4. Map of Eagle Lake Canals. 

Fig. 5. Shallow Well Screen at Chesterville. 

Fig. 6. Map of Canals Below Wharton. 

Plate I: Fig. A, Canal Bviilding by "Humper"; Fig. B, Canal Building by 
Grader. 

Plate II: Fig. A, Threshing Scene; Fig. B, Lakeside Rice Mill. 

Plate III: Fig. A, Steam Plowing; Fig. B, Pumping Plant, Second Lift of 
Orange County Company's Farm. 

Plate IV: Fig. A, Canal Partially Filled; Fig. B, Baling Rice Straw. 

Plate V: Pumping Plant of the Bay Prairie Rice Company. 

Plate VI: Pumping Plant of the Moore-Cortes Company. 

Plate VII: Fig. A, Market Scene; Fig. B, Pumping Plant of the Bay City 
Company. 

Plate VIII: Fig. A, Pumping Plant of the Nile Valley Co.; Fig. B, Flume 
Across Cottonwood Creek near Bay City. 

[Fig. A, Plate II, and Figs. A and B, of Plate VIII, were loaned by J. L. Ladd,. 
editor of the Matagorda Tribune.'] 



CONTEINTS. 

IRice Irrigation Systems 9 

General Features 9 

Beaumont Section 13 

Jefferson County 13 

Taylor's Bayou 13 

Hillebrant Bayou 15 

Pine Island Bayou 16 

Neches Elver 17 

Wells 17 

Orange County 18 

Cow Bayou 18 

Adams Bayou 19 

Chambers County 19 

Turtle Bayou 19 

Liberty County 20 

Trinity River 20 

Wells 20 

Harris County 21 

San Jacinto River 21 

Buffalo Bayou 21 

Bear Bayou 21 

Wells 22 

Galveston County .■ 22 

Clear Creek 22 

Brazos Valley Section 22 

Washington County 23 

Brazos River 23 

9 

Waller County 23 

Brazos River 23 

Wells 23 

Austin County 24 

Mill Creek 24 

San Bernard 24 

Wells 24 

Fort Bend County 24 

Brazos River 24 

Smither's Lake 24 

Wells 24 



Contents. 7 

Brazoria County 25 

Oyster Creek 25 

Bastrop Bayou 26 

Wells 26 

Colorado Valley Section 27 

Colorado County 28 

Eagle Lake 28 

Colorado River 28 

Skull Creek 29 

Wells 30 

San Bernard Creek 31 

Wharton County 36 

Wells 36 

Blue Creek * 37 

Colorado River 39 

Jackson County 39 

Wells . . ." 39 

Matagorda County 39 

Colorado River 39 

DeWitt County 41 

Guadalupe River 41 

Victoria County 42 

Guadalupe River 42 

Pridham's Lake 42 

Wells 42 

Brownsville Irrigation System 42 

Rio Grande 

Rice Culture in Japan 44 

Texas Irrigation Laws 46 



RICE IRRIGATION IIN TEXAS. 



The rice belt of Texas (Fig, 1) extends from the Sabine to the Rio 
Grande, and includes at present two well-developed zones (Beaumont and 
Colorado valley) and several detached areas that are sure, with good man- 
agement, to be the forerunners of extended systems in the respective 
localities. In the Beaumont section, the land is a flat prairie which here- 
tofore cut very little figure as an industrial factor. It is very flat, some 
of which having a slope of only 1 in 5000, and generally requires small 



NEW MEX/CO 




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Fig. 1.— Texas Rice Belt. 



levees and small lifts at the pumps. This flat section extends all along 
the coast region from the Sabine to the Rio Grande. The 250-foot con- 
tour above sea level is from 50 to 125 miles from the gulf, while the 
strip tM'enty to thirty miles wide along the shore rises only a few feet 
above the sea level. But in addition to this coastal belt the rice section 
has, since 1897, been rapidly spreading along and back from the coast, 
until it has reached the Rio Grande to the west, and to Cuero, Columbus, 
and to Washington county on the north. In the flat sections the water 
is often obtained from bayous frequently impregnated with salt sea water 



10 Rice Irrigation in Texas. 

to such an extent that injury to the rice occurs. Rice must have an 
abundant supply of fresh water, and a soil that is rich enough to nourish 
tlie rice, and compact enough to hold the water. It is being successfully 
grown in Texas wherever the above factors are grouped; and money and 
brains are grouping them with a twentieth century effectiveness. No 
longer is the rice belt restricted to the old bayou country, but along the 
Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe and Rio Grande, over 100 miles from the 
coast, a high grade of rice is grown. In addition to this the iirigation of 
rice from wells will certainly prove of greater benefit to the Texas farm- 
ers than all of the big plants combined. This latter method is in its 
infancy, but it is certain to be the chief factor in rice production in 
Texas. The plant of Hudson & Ayers, two miles east of Eagle Lake, is 
but the pioneer of many others in Texas, where the farmer can, with a 
small outlay, convert his fiat lands into a successful rice farm. A well 
12 feet in diameter, 34 feet deep (7 feet of water), an engine to supply 
power, a centrifugal pump, an open box for a flume, a canal easily con- 
structed, — total first cost $2,200 — constituted the equipment. With this 
125 acres of excellent rice were raised in 1900. 

The rice land is laid off in sections, or "cuts," so that the extreme dif- 
ference of elevatioD should not exceed 4 inches. The size of these cuts 
varies with the character of the topography. A cut is surrounded by 
levees or dykes to hold the water. It may be that a hillock or a hole will 
occur in a cut, but this can be ignored as rice producers, till time and 
the plow, will level the one or fill the other. The water is pumped to the 
land by steam, gasoline or water power, by far the greatest part of the 
work in Texas being done by steam. From the best evidence obtainable 
in western Louisiana and East Texas, it seems to be the consensus of 
opinion that it requires 9 gallons of water per minute for each acre of 
rice, or 1 second-foot of water to each 50 acres of rice, although some 
companies estimate 7^ gallons to each acre per minute. In the Beaumont 
section the rainfall often reduces the pumping considerably. During 
1900, a wet year, some pumps were operated only 4 days. But a dry sea- 
son will require the pumps to furnish all of the 9 gallons per minute for 
each acre, and it is not good engineering to allow less than 9 gallons per 
minute, or 12,960 gallons per 24 hours per acre. If x is the number of 
acres to be irrigated and y the lift in feet, the weight of water to be sup- 
plied per second is, allowing 9 gallons per minute per acre, 1.25x pounds, 
and the work done each second in pumping this amount 1.25xy foot- 
pounds. The theoretic horse power required would, therefore, be 

Horse power=xy-^-440. 

Thus for x:=1000 acres and for a lift of y=22 feet, an engine exert- 
ing 50 absolute horse power would be required. The estimated or nom- 
inal horse powers of engines will have to be tested or reduced by a sub- 
stantial fraction if disappointment is not desired. The diagram shown 
in Fig. 2 will (by a single glance) give the horse power required. Given 
the lift and the number of acres to be irrigated to find the horse power 
of engine: Find the lift on the sloping lines (say 40 feet) and follow- 
ing this line to the vertical line through the number of acres to be irri- 
gated (say 550) ; follow the horizontal line to the left and read off the 
horse power required (in this case 50). This, for a good engine, should 
be made 75, and if based on the claims of agents should be increased still 
more. 



EiCE Irrigation in Texas. 



11 



For some plants, owing to the contour of the ground, more than one 
lift has to be erected — that is, more than one pumping station has to be 
constructed. The pumping capacity of each station is the same if there 
is no acreage under the first lift, Ijut the machinery in one may be heavier 
than in the others, depending on the height of the lift. 

From the pumps, the water is led by means of flumes to the canals, and 
is distril)uted from the main canal to the laterals, from which it is dis- 
tributed over the land. The main canals are usually very wide, for in 
most cases they are intended to be Avide enough to act as partial reser- 
voirs. The canals are constructed by the "Humper"^ (a single man with 
a wheel barrow and pick and shovel), as shown in Fig. A, Plate 1, by the 
plow and scraper, or by the modern steam grader which lifts the earth by 

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ACRES 400 

Fig. 3. — Horse Power Diagram. 



800 



an endless belt and deposits it on the canal embankment. The motive 
power is generally supplied by steam, as shoAvn in Fig. B, Plate 1. 

The first rice raised in Texas, by irrigation, was produced in 1862, in 
Jasper county, by the father of Dr. S. W. Sholars, of Orange, Texas. 
The land was situated on a clear flowing stream. It was covered at first 
with thick underbrush, which was cleared away. The land was broken 
by single teams, the rice sowed broadcast, and when up several inches 
was flooded from the stream. A small dam provided witJi a gate deflected 
the water on to the land, the depth of water in the field being regulated 
by the gate. The manner of flooding was similar to that practiced today. 
The rice was harvested with reap hooks, was threshed by crude methods, 
and was milled by the original method of removing the upper stone of a 
grist mill and substituting therefor a section of log whose under surface 
was sufficiently rough to remove the husk from the rough rice and pro- 
duce a clean product. After the husk had been removed, the section of 



12 KiCE Ierigation in Texas. 

log which had replaced the upper stone was taken off, the stone replaced, 
and the clean rice was then reduced to flour. 

The first modern experiments with rice in Texas began in 1888. In 
these experiments the farmers depended upon rainfall to furnish the 
M^ater, but this trusting to Providence in the matter of rice cultivation 
did not pay, and to insure success, pump irrigation was resorted to. This 
has proved satisfactory, regardless of rainfall. The culture of rice by 
this method began about 1893. Prior to this it had only been grown in a 
small way, in ponds and marshes for home use. The method of growing 
rice on a large scale by irrigation and with improved machinery is com- 
paratively new and peculiar to the Southwest, unlike G-eorgia and the 
Carolinas. where rice is still grown in the old way, the rice being planted 
in rows, the field flooded and the water drawn off several times during the 
growing season. Rice is here sowed on comparatively high land, with 
drills or broadcast, cut with self-binders, threshed (Plate II, Fig. A) 
from the shock, or stacked to suit the convenience of the farmer. The 
same kind of machinery is used in raising, harvesting and threshing rice 
that is used with other small grain ; the only difference being that rice 
lands are flooded after the rice is iip to the height of 3 to 6 inches, and 
that the "rough" rice from the thresher is milled and made "clean" in a 
mill similar to Fig. B, Plate II. The practice in Texas is to sow the rice 
any time from April 15th to June 15th, and to keep it flooded from 80 
to 110 days, 90 days being the average. The water kills the grass and 
weeds and causes the rice to grow rapidly. Ten days to two weeks before 
the rice is ripe and ready to harvest, the leeves on the lower side are cut 
and the water is drawn off by means of the ditches made in throwing up 
the levees. This drainage for some plants requires more engineering 
skill in the arrangement of the levees than is required in making them 
fulfill all the requirements for feeding the land with water. 

After the rice is threshed it is taken to the rice mill, where it is 
"milled." The process consists in taking off the husk from the rice 
grains, and it is thus converted from "rough" into "clean" rice. A 
bushel and a quarter to If bushels are so\;vai per acre. The land is plowed 
and harrowed and prepared as it should be for wheat. On the large 
canals traction engines are used to pull a gang or disc plow and the land 
is thus plowed by steam power. Fig. A, Plate III, shows three steam 
plow outfits of Sam A. Eobertson on the Colorado Canal Company's farm 
near Bay City. One traction engine with its plows running night and 
day can break 50 acres in 24 hours. The outfit or equipment will vary 
with the acreage. After the rice is planted and the water is turned on, 
eternal vigilance is necessary to keep canals and ditches in order, to pre- 
vent breaks, with a consequent waste of water and drowning out part of 
the crop. It is by no means an easy crop to manage. The work from the 
first day's flooding till harvesting is a muddy history of patience. Just 
before the crop ripens the water is drawn off to allow the ground to 
harden enough to bear the binder. If the rains set in at this critical 
moment, it entails an additional amount of expense and worry in saving 
the crop. In tliis respect the rice farmers away from the coast and fur- 
ther west have an immense advantage. The rainfall yields a reluctant 
aid during the flooding period and does not jeopardize the crop during 
the time of harvest. Wliile the cost of pumping will be more in the west- 
ern part of the rice belt, the surety of an undamaged product will over- 
balance the additional cost. 



EicE Irrigation in Texas. 13 

In Texas at present two kinds of rice are raised, the Japan and Hon- 
duras. The latter is longer in grain and generally commands a better 
price, while the former is hardier, can stand dry weather better, and is 
more prolific in its yield. In general, 44 pounds are allowed per bushel, 
163 pounds per barrel, while the sack is a rather variable quantity, but is 
usually estimated at 180 pounds. 

There are two general rice sections in Texas, one known as the Beau- 
mont section (including the counties of Jefferson, Orange, Liberty and 
Chambers) and the Colorado River Valley Section, extending from Col- 
umbus, Texas, to the coast. While rice is raised in other sections of the 
State, these sections raise 75 per cent, of all the rice grown in Texas. 

BEAUMONT SECTION. 

JEFFERSON COUNTY. 

Of all the counties of Texas where the people have tried rice growing 
by means of irrigation, Jefferson county undoubtedly stands first in 
•extent of acreage and universal success. Eice has here been grown about 
as long as it has in any county in the State, and in addition the people 
seem to have shown more energy in trying to make it profitable, and in 
increasing the acreage. The recent increase in the number and capacity 
of the rice canals in Matagorda county has rendered it second only to 
•Jefferson county in the acreage planted. 

The various rice farms and plantations lie in two general districts, 
one in the valleys of Taylor and Hillebrandt bayous above their junction 
in the southern part of the county; the other along the valleys of the 
Neches and the Pine Island bayou, northwest of Beaumont. There are 
7 rice growing companies, known as the Beaumont Company, the McFad- 
den & Wiess, the Port Arthur, the Jefferson County Rice Company, the 
Southern Rice & Trust Company, the Gulf Rice Growing Company, and 
the Southwestern Company. The last three rice companies are small in 
comparison with the others, and their acreage is less than some individual 
planters. 

What follows is a general description of the plants, and, when possible, 
the idea of growers will be given in reference to the time of sowing, dis- 
posal of the straw, nature of the land over the whole farms, and similar 
convictions drawn from experience. 

Taylors Bayou. 

Mr. Geo. Gill's farm is situated on Taylor's bayou. The soil on it is 
clay with no sand, and is very hard to plow. He uses the drill and also 
sows broadcast, but recommends the former method. There are two com- 
plete pumping plants on this farm. A 9000-gallon per minute Ivens 
pump is used at one plant, with a life of 12-i- feet. A Skinner engine, and 
80-horse power boiler, made by the Columbia Boiler Works, are used. 
At the other plant a 12,500 minute-gallon Menge pump is used with a 
lift of 3 feet. A Taylor compound engine is used here, with a boiler of 
the same steaming capacity and make as above. The fiume is 6 feet wide, 
2 feet deep and 24 feet long. The main canal leading away is 60 feet 
w'ide and 3 miles long, with several laterals. The total cost of this equip- 
ment was about $5,000. Acreage in 1902 was 1500. 



14 EicE Ireigation in Texas. 

Mr. J. G. Garland's farm lies along Taylor's bayou, about 30 miles 
southwest from Beaumont. The soil on this farm is of a very sticky 
nature, although it works' very well when dry. Mr. Garland sows either 
with a drill or broadcast along in the season from March 20th to aboiit 
June 10th, and uses the ordinary binder in reaping. Irrigation is begun 
about the 20th of May on the first rice sown, and is continued until 
almost time of harvesting. There is in use one pump of the Menge pat- 
tern, which has a capacity of 15,000 gallons per minute (33 second-feet) 
with a lift of 8 feet. A 75-horse power Skinner engine drives the pump 
by means of rope transmission. The water flows frojn the delivery pipe 
into a flume 10 feet wide, 3 feet deep, and 12 feet long, then into canal 
50 feet wide and 1 mile long. There are two laterals — one-half and 
three-fourths of a mile long, respectively. The total cost of this plant 
was about $2,700. With this equipment Mr. Garland irrigated about 750 
acres in 1902. 

The farm of Mr. J. C. Ward is situated on Taylor's bayou, from which 
the water is pumped for irrigating. The soil here is generally sanely, 
with a good clay foundation close to the top of the ground. Irrigation is 
begun about the first of June, though this depends upon the weather. 
His average yield has been 10 barrels or 35 bushels per acre, and he has 
received for this $3.00 per barrel. There are two complete pumping 
plants on this farm. The pump at the larger station is of the Menge type, 
with a capacity of 12,000 gallons per minute (27 second-feet). A lOO- 
horse power Atlas engine is installed with only an 80-horse newer Atlas 
boiler. At the other plant, there is a 8300-minute-gallon Menge pump, 
an engine of local make, with only a 30-horse power boiler. The lift in 
each case is 9 feet. The larger plant cost $5,000, while that of the 
smaller was only $1,500. The flume is 60 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 4 
feet deep. The main canal is from 60 to 40 feet wide and 2 miles long, 
with several large laterals branching off. This plant is operated during 
1902 by the Bigham Bros. 

The farm of the Jefferson Eice Company is situated on the south side 
of Taylor's bayou, 17 miles from Beaumont. Two pumps, one Morris 
23-inch and one Ivens 15-inch, with respective capacities of 30,000 and 
7500 minute-gallons, raise the water from the bayou againsj; a lift of fif- 
teen feet. The engines are of the Erie make, and have a capacity of 
150-horse power and 50-horse power, respectively. The boiler is of the 
same make and has a steaming capacity of 300-horse power. The flume 
is 13 feet wide, 3 feet deep, and 130 feet long, and empties into a canal 
100 feet wide. Twenty-three hundred acres are being irrigated this year. 
The smaller pump was installed in 1896, and the larger (150-horse 
power) in 1898. The highest point on the farm is at the pump plant, 
and this enables them to flood the whole tract without additional lifts 
by pumping. To insure a full supply, a reservoir covering 500 acres has 
been constructed, with an average depth of 4 feet, with a capacity of 
3000 acre-feet or 333,000 cubic yards. 

J. H. Hoopes' farm lies in the lowlands made by Taylor and Hille- 
brandt bayons. Some of the soil is black waxy, some black loam and some 
is sandy, all having a clay subsoil. The yield has been some 8 to 13 sacks 
per acre. A Menge pump, with a capacity of 16,600 gallons per minute 
furnishes the water. This pump works against an average lift of 10 feet, 
varying with high or low water. One Erie engine of 60-hor>;e power is 
used, with an Erie boiler of the same steaming capacity. The flume is 33 



EicE Irrigation in Texas. 15 

feet long, 9 feet wide, and 1 foot deep, and lined with galvanized iron, 
which is an exception to the ordinary construction of flumes in this dis- 
trict. The main canal is 100 feet wide and 1 mile in length. Six hun- 
dred acres were planted in 1902. 

Mr. Ed. Moore's farm is located on Taylors bayou near that of the 
preceding. The soil on it is a mixture of clay and loam. His yield last 
year was below the average, being only from 6 to 8 sacks per acre. He 
uses an Ivens centrifugal pump with a capacity of 3000 gallons per min- 
ute, with a lift of 17 feet. One engine of the Cleveland make of 60-horse 
power runs the pump, and the steam is supplied by a 75-horse power 
boiler. The flume is 300 feet long, 3 feet wide and 1 foot deep. The 
canal is from 15 to 20 feet wide and 2 miles in length. Fifty acres are 
being watered this season. 

The plant of the Southern Eice Company is situated on HiUebrandt's 
bayou, about 12 miles south from Beaumont. The plant is equipped 
with Iven's pumps witli 22-inch suction pipes and 21-ineh discharge, 
operated by a Chandler & Taylor 100-horse power engine which, with the 
lift of 13 feet, is estimated to have a capacity of 15,000 gallons per min- 
ute (33 second-feet). With an engine efficiency of 75 per cent., 71-horse 
power will do this work. The water is delivered by the pumps into a 
flume 150 feet long, 8.5 feet wide and 4 feet deep. The main canal is 
1^ miles long, 75 feet wide and delivers water into laterals 12 feet wide. 
The soil is black with a clay subsoil. Water was rented in 1899 when 
200 acres of rice were sowed, yielding 2000 sacks which sold for $2.70 per 
barrel. The amount sowed in 1902 was 900 acres. 

The Plant of the Lovell Brothers (Willard G. Lovell, manager) is 
located on the banks of Taylor's bayou, and consists of an Iven's pump 
with 21 -inch suction pipe and an 18-inch discharge which, under a max- 
imum lift of 18 feet, is estimated to have a capacity of 18,000 gallons 
per minute (40 second-feet). The plant is run by a Houston, Stanwood 
& Gamble engine of 100-horse power. With an engine efficiency of 75 
per cent., a 100-horse power can pump only 275 second-gallons or 16,500 
minute-gallons. The flume is 146 feet long, 10 feet wide by 3 feet deep ; 
the length of main canal is 3.5 miles, width 50 feet; 1 mile of laterals 
are 20 feet vnide, 1^ miles 15 feet wide, ^ mile 10 feet wide. In 1902, 
760 acres were planted. 

The farm of the Gulf Rice Company is 10 miles south of Beaumont 
on Hillebrandt bayou. The lift is about 12 feet, and the water is pumped 
by a 90-horse power engine. The soil is a brovra clay, 300 acres of which 
were irrigated in 1902. 

The plant of C. A. Pace has one Morris pump, with 15-inch suction 
and 12-inch discharge, operated by a 25-horse power Westinghouse Junior 
engine, which has a maximum capacity against the lift of 12^ feet, of 
10,000 minute-gallons (22.2 second-feet). The water is conveyed by the 
discharge pipe to a flume 28 feet long, 4 feet long by 2 feet deep, which 
in turn delivers the water into the canal, the length of which is 1 mile 
and width 60 feet. The soil is clay and black loam, with a clay subsoil, 
500 acres of which were irrigated in 1902. The yield in 1900 was 3400 
sacks, commanding $3.00 per sack. The whole plant cost $25,000. Pre- 
vious to 1899 other parties owning the same farm irrigated 125 acres. 

The rice farm belonging to Cameron & McClure is located on both sides 
of Hillebrandt bayou. The soil on it is light, but has a fine clay subsoil, 
which retains the water well. The rice is sown during the season from 



16 EicE Irrigation in Texas. 

March 35th to May 1st, and the reaping is done with the ordinary har- 
vester and binder. They have experimented and found that the straw 
makes very good hay. The yield has been from 7 to 10 sacks per acre, 
and the price received for the same ranges all the way from $1.35 to 
$3.40, The lower prices were received for rice of poor quality, much of 
it being damaged by what is termed "red rice." Owing to the farms 
being on both sides of the bayou, there are two complete pumping plants. 
At one of the plants there is in use a 6-foot Menge pump, with a capac- 
ity of 13,000 gallons per minute (37 second-feet) against a l^ead of JO^ 
feet. The engine is of the Skinner type and has a capacity of 75-horse 
power, and receives steam from a 100-horse power boiler. The other 
plant has a 13-inch Van Wie pump with a capacity of 7500 gallons i^er 
minute (17 second-feet), with a lift here, also, of 10^ feet. This pump 
is run by a 40-horse power Skinner engine which, in turn, is supplied 
with steam by a 50-horse power boiler. The flumes are 40 and 60 feet, 
respectively, in length, and 13 and 8 feet wide by 13 inches deep. They 
are constructed of 4 by 4 inch timber in the bents, while the sides and 
bottoms are made of 13-inch planking. This farm irrigated 680 acres 
during the year of 1908. 

The farm of the Viterbo Brothers is situated on Hillebrandt bayou, 
about 13 or 14 miles southwest from Beaumont. One Menge pump, with 
a capacity of 35,000 minute-gallons against a lift of 7 feet is used. Two 
boilers each of 50-horse power furnish the steam to a 75-horse power 
engine. The canal is 40 feet wide and 3^ miles in length. A reservoir, 
covering an area of 335 acres, with a depth of 6 feet, holds the storage 
water. There are 1000 acres leveed in; but not all of this is planted in 
rice. The yield on this land has been from 7 to 18 sacks per acre. The 
amount sowed this year is 750 acres. 

The Beaumont Irrigation Company operates one of the largest plan- 
tations in Texas. Its location is in the northern part of Jefferson county, 
lying along the south side of Pine Island bayou. There are two lifts to 
this plant. The first one raises the water from Pine Island bayou and 
is located at the crossing of the Southern Pacific Railroad. At the first 
lift there are five steam engines, three of 350-horse power each and two of 
250-horse power each, making a total of 1550-horse power. These oper- 
ate rotary pumps against a lift of 31 feet and they have always given sat- 
isfaction. They are located 15 feet above the water in the bayou and force 
the water 16 feet into the flume. The flume is 4 feet deep, 21 feet wide, 
1500 feet long, and has a total fall of only 4 inches. The box is con- 
structed of 1-inch by 13-inch plank, floor and sides being double planked, 
with all joints broken and tarred. The floor rests on 6-inch by 6-inch 
sills, and these are supported by four 6-inch by 6-inch uprights; the dis- 
tance between these iDents is 4 feet. The whole farm is on the prairie, the 
land gradually rising from the first lift. It is about 5 miles from the first 
lift to the second, the water being raised here 11 feet. At the second lift 
two 350-horse power and two 300-horse power engines operate the pumps. 
The flume is constructed similar to that at the first plant, but is only 
300 feet in length. It is estimated that about $135,000 has been ex- 
pended on the plant. This company irrigated about 5000 acres in 1899, 
but about 15,000 acres were irrigated during the season, of 1903. The 
custom of renting is to charge 3 sacks per acre for water alone, and 2 
additional sacks where the company rents the land, making a total of 4 
sacks per acre where both land and water are rented. 



Pi, ATE I. 




Fig. a.— Canal Building by "Humper." 




Fig. B.— Canal Building by Grader. 




Fig. a.— Threshing Scene. ZD 




Fig. B.— Lake Side Rice Mill. 



iilCE llUUGATlON IX TeXAS. 17 

The plant of the Port Arthur Irrigation Company":^ plant is located on 
the Neehes river, about 13 miles southeast of Beaumont and about the 
same distance northwest of Port Arthur. The i)umpiiig plant is situated 
on the hank of the Neehes, from which stream the water is pumped, the 
lift being 21 feet. This plant has been in operation for three years. 
However, until the season of 1900 there was in use only one 18-inch 
Ivens pump, with a capacity of 18,000 minute-gallons. But in 1900 there 
were installed two 24-inch Ivens pumps, with a capacity of 24,000 min- 
ute-gallons each. The other operating machinery, including that installed 
with new pumps, consists of two 125-horse power boilers, four 100-horse 
power boilers, one Chandler & Taylor engine, and one new Corliss engine 
of 350-horse power. The former flume was about 100 feet long, 20 feet 
wide, and 4 feet deep, but this was increased in width to about 60 feet in 
1900. The main canal is 100 feet wide, and has very high levees, but it 
is doubtful whether this is the most economical. The rice straw is baled 
here as on many rice farms in Texas. The method of baling is illustrated 
in Fig. B, Plate IV. After baling it is utilized exactly as hay is used, as 
it makes a good "roughness'' feed for stock. All the land on which this 
rice is grown is black and sticky, and 8500 acres were in rice this season. 

The plant of McFadden-Wiess is located on the western hank of the 
Neches river (or rather on the edge of the marsh that lies between the 
river and the rice lands), about 7 miles southeast of Beaumont. The 
water is conveyed from the river to the plant by a feed canal which is 
dredged out of the marsh. Its length is 2000 feet, width 40 feet, and 
depth 6 feet. The plant is located on the edge of the marsh and a sub- 
stantial foundation was made by driving piles 3 feet apart until the whole 
space under the power and pump house was thus piled. On top of the 
piles several courses of grillage work were laid and this was capped by a 
cement foundation for the machinery. There are two Connersville rotary 
cycloidal pumps, with suction pipes 2| feet by G feet and discharge pipes 
4 feet in diameter. The pumps are run by two compound condensing 
Hamilton-Corliss engines of 250-horse power each. The capacity of the 
plant, with the lift of 22 feet, is estimated at 70,000 uiinute-ga lions (]56 
second-feet), which would require an efficiency of 78 per cent, in machin- 
ery. The main canal is 6 miles long, 100 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep. 
The plant cost $65,000, the machinery costing $40,000. Nine thousand 
acres of rice were irrigated in 1902. 

In addition to the canal plants in Jefferson county there are quite a 
number of plants that derive their water from wells. These are located 
near Hamshire and China. The plant of Geo. J. McManus, near Ham- 
shire, will serve as a type of those in this section. There are two wells 
40 feet apart, connected in a pit 22 feet deep. One well is 81 feet deep, 
while the other is 180. The water bearing sand was found to be 72 feet 
thick and the screen was put in, in three lengths of 20 feet each. It con- 
sisted of an 8-inch pipe with f^-inch holes bored in it 1^ inches apart. 
The pipe was then wrapped with jSTo. 16 wire ^ of ati inch apart, and on 
this was wrapped the copper gauze of mesh 60, 30 and 40 to an inch. 
The 6-inch Van Wie pump is operated l)y a 22-horse power Gaar-Scott 
steam engine, using Beaumont oil for fuel. One himdred and twenty 
acres of rice were irrigated from this plant in 1902. In the same neigh- 
borhood H. C. Wheeler has a well ])lant that derives its water from flow- 
ing wells. At one of these wells it was 207 feet to the water bearing 
sand that furnishes the su])ply. This sand is 43 feet in thickness, mak- 



18 EiCE Ierigation in Texas.. 

ing the total depth of this well 250 feet. !N"ear Hamshire the acreage 
from wells was as follows: McManus, 120; Wheeler, 300; Heisig, 185; 
total, 605 acres. 

The acreage around China from well plants was : Hal Aldridge, 125 ; 
J. W. Kerby, 200; Burrows, 200; Southwestern Co., 200; Spiwy, 150; 
total, 875. 

Summary for Jefferson County. 

Taylor & Hillebrandt's Bayou's: 

George Gill 1,500 acres. 

J. G. Garland 750 acres. 

Jefferson County Rice Co 2,300 acres. 

J. H. Hoopcs 600 acres. 

Bigham Brothers 1,100 acres. 

Lovell Brothers 760 acres. 

W. E. Moore 60 acres. 

C. A. Place 500 .acres. 

Cameron-McClure 680 acres. 

Southern Rice and Trust Co 900 acres. 

Gulf Rice Co 300 acres. 

Viterbo Brothers 950 acres. 

Total 10,400 acres. 

Totals. 

Taylor & Hillebrandt's Bayou's 10,400 acres. 

From wells 1,480 acres. 

Port Arthur Canal — Neches river 8,500 acres. 

McFadden-Weiss — N'eches river 9,000 acres. 

Beaumont Irrigation Co.? — Pine Island 15,000 acres. 

Total 44,380 acres. 

ORANGE COUNTY. 

Rice irrigation has been conducted in Orange county for about ten 
years. F. H. Catron installed a 50-horse power engine in 1891 to oper- 
ate a Menge pump, with a lift of 8 feet, the whole plant being situated 
on Cow bayou, about 6 miles southwest of the town of Orange. His 
ditch was one mile long and 20 feet wide. This plant cost $6,500, the 
canals and laterals costing $5,000, and the engine and pumps $1,500. 
The capacity under this lift was 5000 gallons per minute, or 11.11 
second-feet. With an efficiency of 75 per cent, for the engine, the pump- 
ing of this water called for an exercise of only 14-horse power. In 1896, 
600 acres of rice were irrigated. This plant has passed into the control 
of the Cow Bayou Canal and Irrigation Co., which company has reor- 
ganized the whole plant, removed the pump to a more advantageous posi- 
tion, and installed a 250-horse power Viker-Corliss engine with 18x36 
inch cylinder, operating two Ivens 18-inch double suction latest improved 
pumps with a capacity of 30,000 gallons per minute (66.67 second-feet) 
against a lift of 14 feet. There are 5^ miles of main canal. For the- 



Rice Ikrigation in Texas. W- 

first 1.5 miles, the width is 80 feet, the next 1.5 miles, the width is 50- 
feet, and the remainder 60 feet. The water is first pumped into a flume 
20 feet wide, 4 feet deep and 300 feet long. The cost of the plant, 
including engines, pumps, canals, laterals, flumes, etc., was $25,000. 
Three thousand acres was planted in rice in 1901, and 4500 in 1902. 

Des Moines System. — About 7 miles west of Orange and 4 miles from' 
Terry is located the plant of the Des Moines Rice Company. The plant,--; 
consist of an Ivens pump of 21-inch discharge pipe, operated by a 125- 
horse power Atlas engine with a capacity of 20,000 (44 second-feet) 
gallons per minute against the lift of 17 feet. This duty will require 
an efficiency of 68 per cent, in the engine. Pine wood was used as fuel,, 
and it took about 5 cords for 12 hours. The flume is 200 feet long and 
10 feet wide. The main canal is 3.5 miles long and 100 feet wide, while 
there are four miles varying in width from 20 to 50 feet. The plant 
was installed in 1899, and 960 acres of rice were sown that year, which 
commanded a price of $3.25 per barrelof 162 pounds. In 1900, 1400' 
acres were planted; in 1901, 1600 acres, and 1200 acres in 1902. 

Orange CovMty System. — The plant of the Orange County Rice Com- 
])any is located on Adams' bayou, 4 miles from Orange. There are two 
lifts at this plant. At the first lift one 175-horse power steam engine 
operates a 24-inch Ivens centrifugal pump against a lift of 16-^ feet. 
The two boilers consume 2 barrels of Beaumont oil per 24 hours. The 
plant at the second lift consists of a direct connected 24-inch Morris 
pump and a 100-horse power engine with a lift of 8 feet. The second 
lift plant (Fig. B, Plate III) has a capacity of 20,000 minute-gallons. 
Twenty-one hundred acres were irrigated in 1901, and 3500 in 1902 

Clarh System. — The Clark Canal Company (A. T. Chenault, mana- 
ger) of Orange County, takes its water from the east side of Adams'" 
bayou, under a lift of 16 feet. The machinery consists of a 50-horse 
power Morris steam pump, and 500 acres were planted in 1902. 

Giles System. — The plant of Giles Brothers takes its water from 
Adams' bayou, on the west side, under a lift of 18^ feet. One 50-horse- 
power Ames engine operates the Menge pump, with a 4x4 penstock. In- 
1902, 550 acres were planted. 

Acreage in Orange County. 

Acreage in Orange county is as follows: Cow Bayou Company, 4500; 
Orange County Company, 3500; Pes Moines Company, 1200; Samuel' 
Wilson Companv, 600; Clark Canal Company, 500; Giles Brothers, 550; 
total, 10,850 acres. 

CHAMBERS COUNTY. 

The Trinity Rice and Irrigation Company takes its water from Tur- 
tle bayou and Trinity river. The plant is 22 miles south of Liberty, and 
consists of four large pumps with 24-inch suction and discharge pipes, 
and with a capacity of 20,000 gallons per minute each, or a total of 
80,000 minute-gallons (173 second-feet) against a lift of 32 feet. There 
are four 250-horse power engines, estimated to exert a total of 1000-horse 
])ower. However, with the efficiency of 70 per cent., it only requires 
781 -horse power to pump the estimated discharge. Three of the pumps 
should he able to do all of the work demanded. There are three flumes 



■20 EiCE Irbigation in Texas. 

with a total length of 2400 feet, width of 15 feet, depth of 40 inches; 
16 miles of main canals 100 feet wide, and 10 miles of laterals 40 feet 
wide. The plant cost $130,000, and in a dry season can irrigate 9,600 
acres of rice with the usual evaporation. In 1900, 6000 acres of Provi- 
dence rice were cultivated, producing 29,000 sacks of rice, which com- 
manded $3.00 per barrel. The companT sowed 9000 acres in 1902. Gen- 
■erally they sow during May and June, using about 60 pounds per acre. 

LIBERTY COUXTY. 

The Eaywood Canal and Milling Company has one of the largest 
plants in Texas on the east side of the Trinity river, in Liberty count}', 
the cost of which was $200,000. The plant was installed in the latter 
part of 1900. The company, owing to the excessive rains, raised a good 
average crop of Providence rice in 1900. There are 10 miles of main 
canal, averaging in width from 100 to 150 feet, and 25 miles of main 
laterals of width from 60 to 80 feet. There are three lifts aggregating 
70 feet in all with a pumping station at each lift. The pumps are of 
the Eoots rotary pattern, and those of the river station have, with the 
16-foot lift, an estimated capacity of 45,000 gallons per minute (100 
second-feet). The suction pipes are 3x8 feet, and four of these pumps 
have circular discharge pipes 5 feet in diameter, and two others rec- 
tangular discharges 3x8 feet. The plant at the river consists of two 
475-horse power Lane & Bodley engines, operating two Roots rotary 
pumps (3x8 discharge). The second station is equipped with two 375- 
horse power engines, operating two Roots rotary pumps, with a lift of 
24 feet. The third station consists of two 250-horse power engines, 
operating two pumps, with 5 feet circular discharge and suction pipes, 
against a lift of 30 feet. The soil is a black loam, 6000 acres of which 
were cultivated in 1900, producing 50,000 sacks, which sold for $3.25 
per sack. The company had in 15,000 acres in 1901 and 15,000 in 1902. 
The rice is sowed by a drill or broadcast in April, May and June, and 1^ 
bushels are sowed per acre. The land is let out to renters on the one-half 
plan, i. e., one-fifth for land, one-fifth for water and one-tenth for seed. 
This plant uses oil for fuel, which costs about one-third as much as coal. 

Near Stilson, 32 miles east of Houston, on the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road, Brown & kSou have a rice plant, the water for which is obtained 
from an artesian well 405 feet deep. The pit is 17 feet deep. The first 
280 feet are of 8^-inch casing, the remainder of 5f-inch casing. A 
22-horse power Port Huron traction engine supplies the power required 
to operate the 6-inch Morris pump, which raises the water 12 feet into 
a flume. The land is composed of a black prairie soil. One hundred 
and sixteen acres were irrigated in 1901, producing 870 sacks of rice. 
In 1902, 200 acres were planted. 

N. B. Sapp has an 8-inch artesian well 380 feet deep. In boring this 
well a cypress log was struck at a depth of 360 feet. The operating 
machinery consists of one 18-horse power Foos gasoline engine and two 
16-inch Morris submerged pumps, working under a lift of 8 feet. Water 
was not procured in time for the 1901 crop. 

The well at the plant of the Hill-Brown Rice Land and Irrigation 
Company (C. A. Brown, manager) is 8 inches in diameter, 485 feet rleep. 
the water rising to within 10 feet of the surface. The machinery con- 
sists of a Morris direct connected engine 8x8 inches and two 8-inch Mor- 



EiCE Irrigation in Texas. 31 

ris pumps, the steam being supplied by two 30-Iiorse power Eric City- 
boilers. The season of 1901 was so dry that no rice was planted. Addi- 
tions have been made to the plant of this company, and in 1903 the crop 
was expanded to 1000 acres. 

H. Gigstad watered 105 acres of rice from one well, 85 in Honduras 
and 20 in late Japan. The former averaged 15.14 barrels per acre, and 
was sold for $3.35 to $3.85 per barrel. The expenses of his crop 
amounted to $773, and he cleared $3,694. 

HARRIS COUNTY. 

Harris County Systems. 

JSTearly 90 wells in Harris county are furnishing water for rice irri- 
gation, over half of these being located in the vicinity of Clodine. The 
following is a list of the plants in this county : Sheldon Canal, 2000' 
acres; Harris Rice Company, 600 acres; F. B. West, 150 acres; J. E. 
Eoss, 80 acres ; A. W. Wilkerson, 250 acres ; W. H. Myers, 75 acres ; Con- 
rad Bering, 125 acres; C. L. and C. H. Bering, 200 acres; Baldwin H. 
Rice, 280 acre^; Meadow Brook Company, 3600 acres; S. P. Dickey, 640' 
acres; F. E. Markeley, 60 acres; J. H. O'Donnell, 650 acres; J. E. Caba- 
niss, 75 acres; A. Stockdick, 40 acres; E. Couthwaite, 65 acres; plants 
at Stella, 75 acres ; T. G. Roberts, 60 acres ; ^Mrs. Ida W. Baker, 75 acres ;. 
total, 9100 acres. 

Sheldon System. — Two and one-half miles from Sheldon, 16 miles 
east from Houston, the Sheldon Canal Company takes the water for its 
2000 acres of rice from the San Jacinto river against a 40-foot lift. The 
plant consists of one 300-horse power Corliss engine and one 18-inch Van 
Wie centrifugal pump. The water is delivered into a flume 226 feet 
long, which in turn delivers it into the canal, which is 120 feet wide 
and 4 miles long. The land commanded by the canal lies on both sides 
of the Southern Pacific railroad. 

O'Donnell System. — Thirteen miles south of Houston, near Erin, on 
the Santa Fe, J. H. O'Donnell has six wells, 50 feet apart. These are 
all under 98 feet in depth and have 46 feet of water bearing sand and 
gravel. The whole length of pipe in sand is screened, and the water rises 
in the well to within 4 feet of the surface. The power. is supplied by 
four 28-horse power Fairbanks gasoline engines, which operates the 
5-inch Morris pumps. These are placed in pits 15 to 17 feet deep, and 
are operated in batteries of three each. The soil is black hog wallow, and 
650 acres were irrigated during the season of 1902. 

Meadoiv Brooh System. — On the Meadow Brook farm, northeast of 
Clodine, Fort B. Smith has drilled forty-seven wells and has twelve com- 
plete plants, ten operated by steam and two by Fairbanks gasoline 
engines. A complete plant consists of a central steam boiler, using oil 
for fuel, and two or three engines with the necessary pump^ in either 
opposite directions from the boiler, or in such position as to form a right 
angle with -the central plant. Thus one of these plants consists of a 
125-horse power Erie City boiler operating two 35-horse power engines, 
which run th6 centrifugal pumps. Two wells are connected by piping 
in each pit, and one pump is then connected to the common junction. 
These companion wells are about 20 feet apart and are usually 150 feet 
deep and of 10-inch bore. 



22 EiCE Ierigatiox in Texas. 

Katy Systems. — In the Yicinity of Kat}', in the western part of Harris 
county, Messrs. J. E. Cabaniss, A. Stoekdick and T. G-. Roberts operate 
well plants. The wells of Cabaniss axe 93 and 94 feet deep, respectivel)', 
with 12-foot screens at the bottom, while the Roberts well is 130 feet 
deep with a 20-foot screen. The Cabaniss plant consists of a 22-horse 
power Foos gasoline engine and a 6-inch Morris centrifugal pump. The 
Stoekdick plant consists of a 22-horse power Fairbanks-Moore gasoline 
-engine and 4-inch (rould pump, while the Roberts consists of a 20-horse 
power steam engine and a 6-inch Morris centrifugal pump. At the Caba- 
niss plant 75 acres were irrigated; at the Stoekdick, 40 acres; and at the 
Roberts, 60 acres. 

GALVESTON COUNTY. 

Camp System. — Six miles east of Alrin, in Gralveston county, near the 
junction of the Chigre bayou with Clear creek, Berry W. Camp, of Hous- 
ton, has in operation a rice farm of 1000 acres, producing, in 1901, 86 
bushels per acre. A 150-horse jDower Corliss engine runs a 15-inch Van 
Wie centrifugal pump, against a lift of 40 feet, delivering 8000 gallons 
per minute (18 second-feet). The water is pumped out of an elliptical 
basin 40 feet across and 17 feet deep that was excavated in the banks of 
the bayou, and which was walled in with sheet piling and floored with 
heavy timber. The water is pumped into a flume 2x6 feet and 2000 feet 
long and delivered to the main canal, 25 feet wide and 2 miles long. 
Both the Japan and Honduras rice were sowed, 500 acres of each, the 
seed being imported for the purpose. One and three-fourths bushels 
were sowed per acre. The soil is black, 3 to 4 feet deep, with clay sub- 
soil. The best machinery for handling the rice has been introduced. 
The thresher is the latest improved. It threshes, feeds itself, stacks the 
straw, sacks the grain (two sacks at a time), and has a capacity of 2000 
bushels per 8 hours. During 1902, 800 acres were irrigated at this 
plant. 

BRAZOS VALLEY SECTION. 

The minimum flow of the Brazos river at Waco was found to be, in 
April of this year, 19 cubic feet per second. The section where the meas- 
urement was taken above the new bridge was 24 feet wide, at an average 
.depth of 7 inches, and had a mean velocity of 1.36 feet per second. 
While this low flow was not during the- rice season, it is a fact that the 
period of low water is no respecter of seasons, as was shown fully by the 
experience of the power plant at the Austin dam. Below Waco the 
Brazos receives the Little river, with a minimum flow greater than that 
of the Brazos at Waco; the Little Brazos, the IsTavasota and other smaller 
streams. But their joint flow below old San Felipe will have to be hus- 
banded and stored if the canals now in existence and those now being 
constructed receive sufficient water for their rice. The Fort Bend Com- 
pany has in 750 acres this year, the Brazos, 2000, and the Brazoria, 
4800, making a total watered from the Brazos and its tributary bayous 
and creeks of 7550 acres. In addition to this, the Illinois Irrigating 
Company has projected a canal to be on the west side of the Brazos, near 
old San Felipe ; and the Texas Land and Irrigation Company has been 
at work on their canals near Wallis for months. When these two are 
•comj)leted the necessity of each company's constructing its own system 



EiCE Irrigatiox IX- Texas. 33 

of reservoirs will be emphasized. Tlie Brazos Company has had the 
foresight to take advantage of Jones creek north of Richmond, and they 
have a storage reservoir practically 17 miles long that is now a very val- 
uable franchise, and affords an excellent and sure protection against the 
low water and against the upper canal systems. Its reservoir could, 
with comparatively small outlay, be enlarged if it is found necessary. 
This plant and the San Bernard have at present the only reservoir sys- 
tems as such west of Houston. Two systems at least have resei'voirs in 
Jefferson county, that of the Lovell Brothers and that of the Jefferson 
county Eice Company. Irrigation by storage is a coming factor in Texas 
irrigation, not only for rice, but for ordinary crops, and partial storage 
and partial river supply will force itself as a factor before two more 
rice crops are harvested, if the same rate of expansion continues. 

Under the caption of "Brazos Talley Section" are included all plants 
that are in the counties that border on or through which the Brazos river 
flows. 

WASHIXGTOX COUXTY. 

The plants that are highest up on the Brazos river are located in Wash- 
ington and Waller counties, near the crossing of the Houston & Texas 
Central railroad in the neighborhood of Chappell Hill and Hempstead. 

The plant of W. E. Buchanan is located 6 miles from Chappell Hill, 
in Washington county, and consists of one Atlas 35-horge power engine 
and an eight (8) -inch Morris pump, which lifts the water forty (40) 
feet out of the Brazos river into the flume. The soil is the rich Brazos 
bottoms, and 150 acres were irrigated in 1902. J. P. Buchanan's rice 
farm is six (6) miles northeast of Chappell Hill, and his plant consists 
of two engines, one Beaumier Bros. 125-horse power, and the other of 
40-horse power, operating 15-inch and 10-inch Morris pumps, respec- 
tively. Water at this plant is supplied to land owners and to renters. 
The total acreage in 1903 was 630. 

The floods about the first of Augtist of this year practically ruined all 
of the rice in Washington county. The high water changed the course 
of the river and left the J. P. Buchanan pumping plant on the deserted 
channel nearly a half mile from the new cha-nnel, and changed it from 
Waller to Washington county. The season was so far advanced that no 
attempt was made to transfer the plant to the water or make any other 
provisions for the crop of 1903. 

WALLER COUNTY. 

The plant of Heber Stone, in Waller county, is on the east siide of the 
Brazos river, and consists of one Beaumier Bros. 135-horse power engine, 
which operates the pump that lifts the water 40 feet out of the river into 
the flume. During the current season, 200 acres were irrigated. 

In addition to the river plant mentioned above, there are a few well 
plants in Waller county near the Katy station on the M., K. & T. rail- 
road. These, respectively, belong to C. J. ]S"elson, 90 acres, and W 
Eitle, 50 acres. The ISTelson plant consists of a 14-horse power traction 
engine, operating a 6-inch Van Wie pump. His well is 100 feet deep, 
it being 70 feet to the water bearing sand, with a 16-foot screen. The 
plant of Wm. Eule consists of a 23-horse power Foos gasoline engine 



24 EiCE Irrigation in Texas. 

and a 4-inch Morris centrifugal pump. His well is of a total depth of 
102 feet, 72 feet to water bearing sand. A 16-foot screen is used. 

AUSTIN COUNTY. 

Kacl-horth £ Koy System. — The plant of Kackborth & Koy is located 
on Mill creek, from which it takes its water six miles northeast of Sealy, 
and consists of an 8-inch Morris pump and an Erie City 40-horse power 
engine, working against a lift of 21 feet. The soil is described as a 
"red buckshot," with an admixture of black, 150 acres of which were 
irrigated during the current season of 1902. 

Stone System. — On east San Bernard creek James and Stephen Stone 
have installed an irrigation system H miles from Beard, with which 390 
acres were irrigated in 1900, producing after the Gralveston storm six 
sacks to the acre, commanding $3.00 per sack; and 300 acres in 1901, 
yielding 3000 sacks, which also sold for $3.00 per sack. The plant con- 
sists of one 150-horse power Westinghouse automatic compound engine, 
operating a ISTo. 13 Ivens pump, having a 15-inch suction and a 13-inch 
discharge pipe. The estimated capacity is 7000 gallons a minute (16 
second-feet), under a lift of 27 feet. The flume is 5 feet by 2 feet by 
520 feet long, and delivers the water into a canal 2 miles long and 100 
feet wide. The laterals are f of a mile long and 15 feet wide. The soil 
is light and sandy, from 1 to 1|- feet deep. Wood is used for fuel, 
requiring 3 cords per day for the 390 acres irrigated in 1900. The expe- 
rience here in 1900 but confirms the estimate of irrigators in the Beau- 
mont section, and in Western Louisiana, that it requires fully 9 gallons 
a minute for each acre irrigated, or 8 second-feet for each 50 acres. In 
1902, 300 acres were irrigated. 

Jahn System. — Just north of Beard, G. A. Jalin and associates (the 
San Bernard Company) have a rice farm, and obtain the necessary water 
from San Bernard creek by impounding it in a reservoir of 100,000,000 
gallons capacity. A crib work dam, 350 feet long, backs the water up 1 
mile and deflects it into a canal and pit. The water is then pumped, 
under a lift of 25 feet, into a reservoir covering 180 acres. The water is 
pumped out of the reservoir into the supply canals by two 18-inch Van 
Wie pumps. The power is supplied by a 300-horse power Corliss engine. 
This company irrigated 700 acres in 1902. 

Mag ruder System. — Ten miles southeast of Sealy and 4 miles north of 
Chesterville, Dr. Magruder has constructed a dam across the Little Ber- 
nard, forming an impounding reservoir from which, with a 28-horse 
power engine, he pumped water upon 70 acres of rice during the season 
of 1902. '' 

FORT BEND COUNTY. 

The Fort Bend Irrigation Canal Company has two pumping plants. 
The second plant pumps from Smithers Lake, which, during an average 
season, has an abundance of water for ordinary purposes. The lake has 
a drainage area of 14 square miles, and to make doubly sure the outlets 
are dammed to prevent waste. But notwithstanding this, it was made 
evident early in the season of 1901 that the long continued drouth in 
the coast country, which extended practically from September 8, 1900, to 
September, 1901, had completely exhausted the resources of the lake. 



Plate III. 




Fig. a.— Steam Plowin£ 







"^ 




Fig. B.— Punipinfi Plant second lift Orange County Company. 



■iS^aife. Z^:^ 



EicE Irrigation in Texas. 35 

At the second lift the phmt is composed of one 50-horse power Cliandler 
& Taylor engine, and one 13-inch Ivens pump, the capacity of which 
is estimated to be 10,000 minute-gallons, with the lift 18 feet. The soil 
is black prairie land with a good subsoil, 400 acres of which were irri- 
gated during the current season. The plant at the river consists of an 
engine of 300-horse power, operating the pump against a lift of 45 feet. 
This plant pumps the water into Dry bayou, and this in turn flows into 
Lake bayou. A dam has l)een constructed across Kabb's bayou to hold 
the water from passing our. The acreage in 1903 was 750. 

The pumping plant of the Brazos Canal Company is located on Jones 
creek, 5 miles north of Richmond, Texas, and 30 miles west of Houston. 
The water is taken from the creek, which possesses the characteristics of 
a bayou, and acts as a storage reservoir 17 miles long. The lands to be 
irrigated lie w^est of Houston, and fall generally to the eastward from 
the pumping plant. An extra pumping plant is located on the Brazos 
river just below the upper junction of Jones creek with the Brazos, and 
at low stages of the river will have to lift the water 32 feet into the res- 
ervoir. A tunnel is excavated from the bayou reservoir to the river, and 
when the level of the river water rises 32 feet it flows into the reservoir 
without pumping or can be shut off if desired. At the second pumping 
plant the water will be lifted 33 feet into a canal, giving 4 feet of water 
in the canal, which, with the configuration of the country, can cover the 
lands to the east by gravity. During 1902 only 3000 acres were irri- 
gated. 

The Brazoria Rice and Irrigation Company takes its water from the 
Brazos river above the crossing of the Santa Fe railroad. The plant con- 
sists of a 900-horse power Greenwald engine, operating a Worthington 
high lift 36-inch pump against a head of 47 feet, and has an estimated 
capacity of 35,000 minute-gallons. The 100-foot canal from the river 
conveys the water into a lake 37 acres in extent, about 1^ miles from the 
river. The water is pumped out of the lake into the second canal by a 
450-horse power Greenwald engine and a 36-inch Worthington pump 
against a lift of 17 feet. The canals extend at present to the eastward, 
crossing the tracks of the Columbia Tap railroad near Riceton. It is con- 
templated to construct another canal crossing the Santa Fe railroad, to 
irrigate land south of Areola Junction. Only 4800 acres were irrigated 
by this company in 1903. 

' BRAZORIA COUNTY. 

In Brazoria county the following named parties have plants: J. A. 
Bent, William Masterson, Howard F. Smith, H. and G. Munson, Judge 
Walker, John Chase, Travers Smith and A. H. Bartel. 

Two miles south of Areola Junction, J. A. Bent has a small plant of 
al)Out 40 acres, where a small dinky engine, with a 4-inch Morris pump, 
raises the required water from a well. 

The rice farm of William T. Masterson is 4 miles southwest of Sandy 
Point, and derives its water from Oyster creek. A 25-horse power Erie 
City engine operates an 8-inch Morris pump agaijist a lift of 17 feet, 
and in 1901, irrigated 30 acres in rice, yielding 250 sacks. Forty acres 
were sown in 1902. 

The plant of Rod Oliver is 10 miles southwest of Angleton. A 25- 
horse power engine, against a lift of 10 feet, operates a special pump 



26 EiCE Irrigation in Texas. 

designed by a Mr. Baker, of Angleton. It discharges through a vertical 
penstock 3x3 feet. Seventy-five acres were to be irrigated in 1901, but 
none is planted this year. 

The plant of II. and G. Munson is 3 miles west of Angleton, on Oyster 
creek, and consists of an 80-horse power Erie City engine, operating a 
15-inch Morris pump, against a lift of 10 feet. The plant was late in 
getting to work in 1901, but notwithstanding this, 250 acres were irri- 
gated, but only 100 were harvested, yielding 900 sacks that sold for $2.50 
per sack. Seven hundred acres are being irrigated this season. 

The rice farm of Walker & Cain, near Angleton, Brazoria county, has 
three pumping plants. The first is located on Bastrop bayou, and con- 
sists of one 150-horse power engine operating two 15-inch centrifugal 
pumps against a lift of 10 feet, and having an estimated capacity of 
25,000 minute-gallons. The second plant is located on Oyster creek, 
and constitutes an emergency plant in times of low water in Bastrop 
bayou. One 125-horse power engine pumps the water from Oyster creek 
into the canal that leads to Bastrop bayou. A dam has been constructed 
across Bastrop bayou to keep back the salt water, but it also acts as a 
storage reservoir for the fresh water. Plant ISTo. 3 constitutes the second 
lift for the main supply canal. It is 2 miles from plant N"o. 1, and a 
75-horse power engine operates the pumps against a lift of 6 feet, and 
has an estimated capacity of 15,000 minute-gallons. During the current 
season, 1400 acres were planted. 

John Chase also gets the water for his rice farm from Bastrop bayou, 
6 miles southwest of Angleton. The pump used is a special propeller, 
made by Mr. Baker of Angleton. It is run by a 25-horse power Erie 
City engine under a lift of 8 feet. The crop was badly injured by salt 
water in 1901, the yield being two sacks per acre. Sixty acres were 
planted this season. 

J. G. and Travers L. Smith own and operate two rice farms 6 miles 
north and 9 miles west of Columbia, respectively. The first derives its 
water from a lake covering 2000 acres, but the lake failed in 1901, and 
the result was no crop. The plant is composed of two Atlas engines of 
40 and 25-horse power, and two Morris pumps, 15 and 12-inch, respec- 
tively. The lift is 12 feet and the estimated capacity is 6200 minute- 
gallons. The plant was first operated in 1900, when 85 acres of rice 
were raised. The second plant, 9 miles west of Columbia, is to derive 
its water from an 8-inch well 270 feet deep. One Nagle 40-horse power 
engine runs an 8-inch Morris pump, against a lift of 10 feet. Five hun- 
dred and fifty acres were irrigated in 1902. 

The plant of A. H. Bartel is 6 miles from Angleton on the Bastrop 
bayou, and consists of a 25-horse power engine and a 12-inch Lawrence 
pump operating against a lift of 8^ feet. He irrigated 100 acres in 
1902. 

Halley System. — One and one-half miles south of Algoa, R. B. Halley 
sunk seven wells 42 to 45 feet deep early in 1901, and arranged them in 
battery formation, four on one side and three on the other. The operat- 
ing machinery consists of a 22-horse power portable Foos gasoline engine 
and an 8-inch vertioal Morris suction pump. The pumps are placed 8 
feet below the surface, but the water will rise in the pit to within 4 feet 
of the ground surface. After the pumps are started the water levels 
are lowered 10 feet, giving a lift of 18 to 22 feet. The soil is black 



Rice Irrigation in Texas. 27 

prairie. The water supply for ]901 failed, and 250 sacks of Providence 
rice were raised, but 200 acres were again sowed in 1902. 

Wilkerson System. — Three miles fi'oni Genoa, on the Galveston, Hous- 
ton & Henderson railroad, A. W. Wilkerson has an irrigation plant, con- 
sisting of two stations about a half mile apart. At one there is a porta- 
ble 22-horse power engine and an 8-inch Morris pump, and at the other 
a 7-horse power Foos gasoline engine, running a 6-inch Morris pump. 
The water is obtained from 560 feet deep, 8-^ inches in diameter. The 
soil is a rich black prairie, and 250 acres were irrigated in 1902. 

ACREAGE IN BRAZOS VALLEY. 

Washington County. — J. P. Piuchanan, 630 acres; W. E. Buchanan, 
150 acres; total, 780 acres. (The former crop was destroved bv the 
flood.) 

Waller County. — Heber Stone, 200 acres; C. J. Nelson, 90 acres; W. 
Eule, 50 acres; T. G. Roberts, 60 acres; total, 400 acres. * 

Austin County. — Hackborth & Kay, 150 acres; Jahn, 700 acres; Steve 
Stone, 300 acres; Dr. Magruder, 70 acres; total, 1220 acres. 

Fort Bend County. — Fort Bend Company, 750 acres; Brazos Com- 
pany, 2000 acres; Brazoria Company, 4800 acres; Willis & Young, 350 
acres; Jones & Gordon, 500 acres; H. F. Ring, 165 acres; B. A. Evarts, 
125 acres; H. Kempner, 80 acres; Trav. Smith, 60 acres; total, 8830 
acres. 

Brazoria County. — J. A. Bent, 40 acres; W. T. Masterson, 40 acres; 
Munson Bros., 700 acres; Judge Walker, 1400 acres; John Chase, 60 
acres; A. H. Bartel, 100 acres; R. B. Halley, 200 acres; Travers Smith, 
610 acres; total, 3150 acres. 

COLORADO VALLEY SECTION. 

Much speculation has been indulged in as to the amount of flow of 
the Colorado river at various points and its capacity in rice acreage. 
The configuration of the country, the character of the soil, and the 
height to which the water would be lifted render the economical produc- 
tion of rice above Columbus on a large scale highly improbable. It is 
admitted by all that rice culture in the Colorado valley is in its infancy, 
and yet the river watered 52,000 acres of rice below Wharton during the 
season of 1902. That this is beyond the capacity of the low flow of the 
Colorado is well known to competent observers. But fortunately for the 
rice growers, the raft that extends from the Nile Valley pumping plant, 
just west of Bay City, for several miles down the river, forms a loose 
dam that impounds the waters of the Colorado and forms a storage reser- 
voir. Thus at the ferry, the Nile Valley plant is 260 feet wide and 25 
feet deep, and is practically 25 miles long. To this storage capacity may 
be added the contents of the various lakes that lie along the course of 
the river. In addition to these sources of minimum supply (the low 
flow of the river, the stored water and supply) may also be added the 
increase at low stages of the inflow from the water bearing sand. The 
depth from the ground surface to this sand near El Campo and Pierce 
is about 15 feet. At this depth a water bearing sand is encountered, 
which, for the shallow wells, can be averaged at 30 to 40 feet for wells 
sunk between El Campo and the river. The water supply, then, for the 



28 EiCE Irrigation in Texas. 

rice farms below Wharton is derived from the river flow, the impounded 
waters, the lakes and the nndergroiind source. 

But neither the flow of the river nor the storage capacity above the 
raft can avail should some canal company install an extensive pumping 
plant or plants on the river near Eagle Lake, and extend canals to the 
eastward north of Eagle Lake and deflect to the southward to bring the 
lands to the north of south of Lissie under cultivation. The same con- 
ditions could be brought about by a canal system on the east side of 
the river above or below Eagle Lake, or by a similar system on the west 
side. ■ 

The flow of the river at Austin in the early part of July, 1902, was 
210 cubic feet per second, and if a new canal system near Eagle Lake 
watering 15,000 acres, making a total watered from the river by canals 
in that vicinity of 25,000 acres, practically no water would be left in 
the river below Garwood at low stages of the river. Its reinforcement 
by the feeble supplies between Eagle Lake and Wharton would leave a 
scanty supply of the direct flow for the systems below Wharton. All 
this is at present possible, for under the latest decision of the Supreme 
Court (Appendix B), the upper proprietor can take the water out of 
the river for the purposes of irrigation even though he does not leave 
sufficient water for the lower proprietor for the same purpose, provided 
that he (the upper proprietor) can establish the fact that irrigation is 
necessary for agricultural purposes. 

The whole situation emphasizes (as suggested by the late Capt. Duno- 
vant) the necessity of storing the waters during the time of floods or 
freshets, and of husbanding them for dry times. An allowance of 7.5 
gallons per minute per acre, or one cubic foot per acre per minute, or a 
flow of 1 second-foot for 60 acres, would require 36 inches of water on 
the land during a season of 90 days. An allowance of 5 gallons per 
minute for 90 days for each acre would mean a supply of 2 feet on the 
surface. 

That each canal svstem should be compelled to obtain part of its 
water from its own storage system is equitable and just, and that some 
plan of this kind will have to be adopted is clear. If we allow 7.5 gal- 
lons per minute, or 3 feet for the whole season, and let half of this be 
supplied by a storage reservoir, with an effective depth of 9 feet, then 
one-seventh of the land would have to be devoted to reservx)ir purposes, 
or if an effective depth of 12 feet could be obtained, only one-ninth of 
the land would have to be devoted to reservoir purposes. If only five 
gallons were to be allowed per minute on each acre, a reservoir 9 feet 
deep, furnishing half of the water necessary to cover the land; that is, 
to supply 1 foot of water per second, only one-tenth of the land would 
have to be devoted to storage purposes. 

That the storage system is feasible has been demonstrated by the San 
Bernard Irrigation Company (F. A. Eossier, manager), near Sealy, 
Texas, where a reservoir of 180 acres has been constructed, to carry 700 
acres of rice. In other words, one-fifth of the land has been devoted to 
reservoir purposes. 

COLORADO COUNTY. 

In 1899, Capt. Wm. Dunovant irrigated 250 acres of rice near the 
town of Eagle Lake, Colorado county. This was the first rice irrigated 
along the Colorado river, and proved so successful that in 1900 30,000 



Rice Irrigation in Texas. 



29 



acres were irrigated in the Colorado valley, and in 1902, 5G,000 acres. 
Near the town of Eagle Lake there lies a beautiful, clear, fresh water 
lake of the same name, covering an area of about 2500 acres, having an 
average depth of G feet, and having a drainage area of fifty square miles. 
It was not until 1899 that the idea was put into practice of utilizing thio 
body of fresh water for irrigation purposes. In that year Capt. Duno- 
vant installed a plant consisting of a 12-inch Van Wie double suction 
pump, throwing 4000 gallons per minute. The lift was then 27 feet. 
The three boilers were old style tubular, and were moved from a burned 
up sugar mill. The engine was of 200-horse power. The flume had a 
length of about 350 feet and was made of piping. With this equipment, 
250 acres were irrigated in 1899. The plant has been increased from 
time to time, until it now consists of three pumping stations, two on the 
lake and one on the river. That on the river consists of a 300-horse 
power engine, operating three centrifugal pumps, one 18-in?h Morris, 
one 15-inch Morris and one 18-inch Ivens, all working under an ordi- 
nary lift of 14 feet. The lift would have been much more than this, 
but the canal to convey the water from the river to the lake was so 
deepened that the low lift of 14 feet was secured. The old plant on the 




Fig. 3.— Cross-Section of Vineyard and Walker Flume. 



lake consists of three engines, two of 150-horse power each, and one of 
60-horse power. These operate against a lift of 22 feet. Three centri- 
fugal pumps, one 12-inch Van Wie, one 20-inch Morris, and one 12-inch 
Ivens. This plant delivers the water into a flume that connects with the 
main canal system, crossing the tracks of the Cane Belt railroad by 
means of an inverted siphon. The third plant is situated on the lake 
between the towns of Lakeside and Eagle Lake, and is operated by an 
electric motor that derives its power from the engines of the gin in Lake- 
side. The pump is a 12-inch Morris, and works under a lift of 27 feet. 
The water is delivered into a flume which connects with a main canal 
that also crosses the Cane Belt tracks, and there parallels the tracks, 
crossing the canal of the Eagle Lake Rice Company, and connects with 
the canal from the original pumping station. Eighty barrel? of Beau- 
mont oil are used for fuel per each 24 hours at these stations. Thirty- 
six hundred acres were irrigated in 1902. 

The Eagle Lake Rice Company (A. M. Waugh, secretary) has erected 
a pumping plant about } mile north of Capt. Dunovant's plant No. 1. 
Their farm lies near the town of Eagle Lake, immediately noith of that 
of Capt. Dunovant. There are two complete pumping plants belonging 
to this firm, one situated on the lake, the other on the Colorado river, 
which pump the water from the river to the lake. The pump at the lake 



30 



EiCE Ierigation in Texas. 



is a 24-inch centrifugal Ivens, and has a capacity of 30,000 minute-gal- 
lons, lifting the water 27 feet. The 250-horse power Skinner engine 
receives steam from a battery of three boilers of 125-horse power each. 
The flume (Fig. 3) is 1000 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, with 
a fall of 1 inch in 1000, and is one of the most substantial flumes in 
Texas. It is made completely of oak. The box is tongued and grooved 
and leaded. The foundation is set on heavy oak blocks, 6x6 pieces stand 
on these and support the flume. 

The canal is 60 feet wide at its head, or where the flume enters it, 



6Ai 



SP R R 





// 



Fig. 4. — Map of Eagle Lake Canals. 

but after the rice farm is reached, the width is increased to 100 feet. 
The total length of this canal is 3;^ miles. There are two large laterals 
leading oft' from the caual, 4000 and 300 feet long, respectively. 

A few hundred feet from its head the canal crosses the Cane Belt 
railroad by means of an inverted siphon. The ends of this siphon are 
made of brick formed into a horseshoe cross-section. Owing to the jar 
caused by passing trains, it was considered wise not to extend this brick 
conduit under the track. Consequently, the brick work stopped on both 
sides just before the track is reached,- and the water is carried on through 
by means of pipes. The falling and rising curves in the siphon are easy, 
so as to eliminate as much friction as possible. 



Rice Irrigation in Texas. 31 

The pump at the plant on the river is a 30-ineh centrifugal Ivens, 
and is rnn b}^ an Erie City 3'^5-horse power engine. The capacity of this 
pump is 30.000 gallons per minute, and it lifts the water 22 feet. The 
river plant is supplied with fuel oil from the tanks on the S. A. & A. P. 
railroad through a pipe line. The company irrigated 3500 acres in 
1902. The soil on the farm is black sandy. And the contour of the land 
proves to be of great advantage, for after a certain distance the ground 
falls, thereby making a second lift unnecessary. A map of the canal 
systems near Eagle Lake is shown in Fig. 4, where those marked D 
belong to the Dunovant system, those marked E to the Eagle Lake Com- 
pany; S, the Sigler plant; H, the Harbart-Stafford, and R B, the Red 
Bluff Company. 

West of the Colorado River. 

West of the Colorado river and near the stations of Altair and Rock 
Island on the San iVntonio & Aransas Pass railroad, several small rice 
plants have been introduced. On the west bank of the Colorado river 
a few feet below the railroad bridge stand in plain view of the passing 
trains the pumping plants of Dr. H. C. Sigler and that of the Harbart- 
Stafford Rice Company. The rice farm of the former (see Fig. 4) lies 
along both sides of the railroad track, and the plant consists of a Wells 
8-inch pump operated by a 35-horse power Atlas engine. With a lift 
of 34 feet, the capacity of the plant is estimated at 2500 minute-gallons. 
The plant cost $4,o00,- and from it 150 acres of rice were irrigated in 
1902. The plant of the Harbart-Stafford Rice Company (H,"Fig. 4) 
is just below that of Dr. Sigler, and west from the Colorado river. The 
plant consists of 150-horse power Atlas engine, operating an 18-inch 
Van AVie pump, with an estimated capacity of 16,000 gallons per minute 
(35 second-feet), with a lift of 33 feet from the river level to the flume. 
The flume is 200 feet long, 5 feet wide and 2 feet deep, discharging into 
the main canal, which is 1^ miles long and 40 feet wide, with 2 miles of 
laterals 20 feet wide. The plant cost $8,000, and the company planted 
350 acres of rice in 1902. 

Four miles from the Aransas Pass railroad bridge, J. W. Westmore- 
land has a rice farm of 225 acres. The water is taken from the Colorado 
river by an 8-inch vertical suction Morris pump. The engine is a 50- 
horse power Erie City, and the water is raised to a height of 42 feet. 

Four miles east of Rock Island and one mile below the crossing of the 
S. A. & A. P. railroad with Skull creek, the Brandon Brothers have a 
rice farm that derives the necessary water from Skull creek. The plant 
consists of a 40-horse power Erie City engine and an 8-inch Van Wie 
pump that operates agaist a lift of 32 feet, and during the season of 
1902 irrigated 85 acres of rice. 

In the country lying between Rock Island and Garwood there is quite 
a number of small rice farms that derive their water from wells. The 
wells are somewhat similar in construction, and always consist of a pit, 
either circular or rectangular in cross-section, excavated to a depth of 
from 18 to 22 feet deep, with a bored well in the bottom of the pit. This 
well must always extend through sufficient water bearing sand and 
gravel to give sufficient flow for the farm. A screen must be let into the 
sand strata, which will keep the sand as far as possible out of the pipes, 
and which will admit sufficient water. These screens are of various 



32 EiCE Irrigation in Texas. 

forms and lengths, and u^Don the screens often hang the success of the 
whole enterprise. 

The first step in a scheme of this kind is to get the well and do noth- 
ing further till it is an assured fact. The screen can be of side or end 
suction. In the former case the pipe is perforated with holes -| to f 
inches in diameter, 2 to 3 inches apart. Around the pipe is then wrapped 
fine wire, almost touching, and over this a copper gauze is stretched — 
the mesh varying with the kind of sand, and often experience is the only- 
test. The end suction screen will be described later. The wells of Baker 
Brothers and W. C. Jones will serve to illustrate those west of the river 
in Colorado county. The Baker well has a screen 27 feet long at the 
bottom of a 67-foot well, while the Jones well encountered water at a 
depth of 34 feet, and from this depth he placed a 30-inch screen 29 feet 
long, through coarse gravel. The suction pipe is attached to the screen 
pipe and generally a centrifugal pump is placed in the bottom of the pit 
and the vertical shaft extends several feet above the surface of the 
ground. A pulley is mounted on this shaft and the pump is operated 
from the engines by belts. The engines for a single well are generally 
small steam engines of 15 to 40-horse power, or gasoline engines of 12 
to 28-horse power. A good well outfit ought to be put in for about 
$1,600. 

The following will show the well plants west of the river in Colorado 
county: Frank Marshall, 50 acres; A. W. Small, 100 acres; Berry Bros., 
90 acres; E. D. Eone, 135 acres; W. C. Jones, 200 acres; John Duncan, 
100 acres; Baker Bros., 100 acres; Berry, Cox & Johnson, 85 acres; Will 
Car, 80 acres ; total, 940 acres. 

Red Bluff System. — Just north of Garwood the plant of the Eed Bluff 
Eice Company (E. B., Fig. 4) takes its water from the Colorado river. 
The plant consists of two 150-horse power Erie City boilers, and one 
300-horse power Corliss engine. The pump is a 20-inch Morris centrifu- 
gal, with a lift of 42 feet, and has a capacity of 15,000 minute-gallons. 
The water is delivered into a flume 2x8 feet, and then into a 100-foot 
canal If of a mile long. Twelve hundred acres were watered this season. 

The total rice acreage in Colorado county west of the river is as fol- 
lows: From well plants, 940 acres; Brandos Brothers, 85 acres; J. W. 
Westmoreland, 225 acres; H. C. Sigler, 150 acres; Harbart-Stafford, 350 
acres; Eed Bluff Company, 1200 acres; total, 2950 acres. 

East of River. 

In that section lying east of the Cane Belt railroad and lying between 
Sealy, Hungerford and East Bernard, there are twenty well plants, avei'- 
aging two wells to the plant, the acreage varying from 75 to 550. These 
plants, lying mostly in that section bounded by Eagle Lake, East Ber- 
nard and Chesterville, have a common bond, in that they obtain their 
water from the water bearing (W. B.) sand lying under the upper blacker 
soil. The complete list of plants is shown in tabular form below. A few 
typical plants will be described. 

Hudson & Ayers System. — Two miles east of Eagle Lake is a plant 
that irrigates from wells. On this farm in 1900, G-eo. Vick sank a well 
12 feet in diameter and 34 feet deep, and with a submerged Ivens pump 
discharging through a 5-inch force main he irrigated 125 acres of rice. 
The pump was operated by an Avery traction engine, which was also used 



Plate ]V. 




Fig. a. — Canal partially filled with water. 




Flu. U. Jialini; Kice Jjtraw. 



Plate V. 




— . S%. 





iu^«t^4hLiUiKL:fi<^aiK^^, 



Bay Prairie Company's Pumping Plant. 



IhcE Ikkigatiun in Texas. 33 

for threshing purposes. The pipe discharged into a small flume 13x12 
im-ht's, which in turn discharged into a ditch 35 feet wide and 1 mile 
long. In addition to the 135 acres irrigated from the pumps, 25 acres 
were irrigated by damming a small stream, foivming a storage reservoir. 
Mr. Vick sowed in 1900 H busliels to the acre, but increased this to If 
to 3 bushels per acre in 1901. The crop of 1900 was damaged by the Gal- 
veston storm, but notwithstanding this he realized 19 bushels per acre, 
which he sold for $1.50 to $4.50 per sack. The cost of the total plant 
used in 1900 was $3,350. This .plant is now owned and run by Hudson 
& Avers. A new 45-horse power Erie City engine has replaced the trac- 
tion engine. Beaumont oil is used as fuel, and it requires about 3 barrels 
per 34 hours' run. One hundred and sixty-five acres were irrigated in 
1903. 

Adams System. — The feasibility of using windmills for rice irrigation 
was thoroughly tested at the plant of Adam Adams, 4.5 miles east of 
Eagle Lake, and was found insullicient. He installed nine Gamble long 
stroke windmills, with a 3xl4-inch cylinder and a 10-foot wheel, operat- 
ing the pumps with a 3-inch suction and discharge pipe against a lift of 
35 feet from the seven wells that furnish the water. The windmills 
failed to give sufficient power and a surface well was sunk 47 feet deep, 
37 inches to water bearing sand, the screen Ijcing only 7 feet long. A 
Fairbanks-Morse 33-horse power gasoline engine operating a 6-inch Mor- 
ris centrifugal pump raises the water to the flume. Eighty acres were 
irrigated in 1903. 

Gray System. — N'ear Lissie George Gray has installed a 38-horse power 
Fairbanks & Morse gasoline engine, which operates a Van Wie pump 
having a 6-inch discharge pipe and an estimated capacity of 3,300 gal- 
lons a minute (5 second-feet). The plant cost $4,500. The water is 
supplied by two wells, one an 8-inch well 103 feet deep, with 91 feet 
of water, the other a 10-inch well 140 feet deep, with 115 feet of water. 
The main canal is f of a mile long and 8 feet wide. The soil is black 
and sandy, with a clay subsoil. One and one-fourth bushels of rice are 
sowed to the acre. For the land rented one-fifth of tlie crop is charged 
for land rent, one-fifth for water, and one-tenth for seed — /. e., for land, 
water and seed, one-Iialf of the crop is charged. In all, 130 acres were 
irrigated in 1901, ))ut the cold weather ruined 50 acres. The 70 acres 
saved yielded 740 sacks. During the current season Mr. Gray operated 
two distinct pumping plants, and has made arrangements for a third. 
He sowed 400 acres this season. 

Malmquist System. — C. T. Malmquist irrigated 38 acres from one well 
by an 8-horse power Fairbanks & ]\[orse gasoline engine, operating one 
No. 4 Lvens ])ump having 5-inch suction and 4-ineh discharge pipes, and 
an estimated capacity of 600 gallons a minute (1.33 second-feet) under 
a lift of 16 feet. The plant is 1 mile from Chesterville. The yield was 
300 sacks, which sold for $3.15 a sack. During the current season he 
irrigated 60 acres. 

McLain System. — Four and one-half miles from Chesterville George 
McLain irrigates 160 acres from two wells. One Charter 18-horse power 
gasoline engine runs a No. 4 Van Wie pump having a 5-incli suction 
and a 4;|:-inch tlischarge. The plant has an estimated capacity of 1300 
gallons a minute (2.67 second-feet) under a head of 15 feet. Only 5 
acres were planted in 1900, and the crop was consideral)ly damaged by 
the Galveston .storm. The soil is black waxy, and produced 7 sacks to 



34 EicE Irrigation in Texas, 

the acre in 1900. The water supply failed in 1901, and Mr. McLain 
raised no rice, but in 1903 he sowed 150 acres. 

Townlei/ tSjjstem.—The plant of J. C. Townley, f mile from Chester- 
ville, consists of one ISTo. 8 Morris pump having 9-incli suction and 8-inch 
discharge, operated by a 35-horse power Erie City engine. The lift is 
20 feet and the estimated capacity 1700 gallons a minute (3.8 second- 
feet). The soil is black and sandy. Two hundred acres were irrigated 
in 1903. The plant, exclusive of land, cost $3,000. 

Linderholm System. — One-fourth mile from Chesterville John Linder- 
holm has three of the most effective well plants in Texas. Three No. 6 
Van Wie pumps, having 8-inch suction and 6-inch discharges, and one 
No. 3 Van Wie pump, having 5-inch suction and 3-inch discharge, are 
operated by four Fairbanks & Morse engines of 31, 28, 34 and 13-horse 
power, respectively, against a lift of 20. feet, each estimated to have a 
capacity of 8000 gallons a minute (18 second-feet). The wells are on 
the highest points of the land, and no flumes are necessary. Two reser- 
voirs have been constructed, but so far they have not been utilized. The 
soil is a sandy loam, and the 125 acres irrigated in 1900, notwithstanding 
the Galveston storm, produced 8 sacks to the acre, commanding $3.50 
per barrel of 162 pounds. Four hundred acres were irrigated in 1901, 
the yield being 9^ sacks to the acre, commanding from $3.00 to $3.10 
a sack. Land is rented on the usual one-half plan, i. e., one-fifth of the 
crop for land, one-fifth for water, and one-tenth for seed. Watts oil is 
used for fuel. During the season of 1903, 550 acres were irrigated by 
these plants, and when visited by the writer in July the rice was of good 
growth, well advanced and excellent color. 

At plant ISTo. 2 of John Linderholm at Chesterville 135 acres of rice 
were irrigated in 1901, although a late start was made. The machinery 
consists of a 28-horse power gasoline engine, operating a 6-inch Van Wie 
pump. The plant cost $2,150, expenses, $500, and the crop paid for the 
plant, expenses and'the land estimated at $12.50 per acre. This season 
Watt's refined Beaumont oil is used as a fuel in the gasolifie engines. 

Electric System. — Instead of having several distinct power plants, each 
to carry its own pump and acreage, the San Bernard Eice and Irrigation 
Company (C. B. Sloat, manager), has on its plant 2 miles east of Lissie 
erected a central power plant, consisting of a steam engine and boiler, 
capacity sufficient to carry three whole pumping plants. The power is 
conveyed to a 75 K. W. electric motor and by this power is transmitted 
electrically by wire to smaller motors of 20-horse power capacity at the 
three pumping plants on the farm. The experiment will demonstrate 
clearly the most economical method of operating plants where pumps are 
located in different parts of the farm. 

A typical surface well for the Chesterfield plants would be 41 to 44 feet 
deep, 19 feet to water bearing sand and then 20 to 25 feet of sand, fol- 
lowed by clay. A very successful screen with bottom suction 8 feet long 
is used in this neighborhood. It consists of a wooden pipe about 8 inches 
in diameter, from which longitudinal ribs project. Fig. 5 is an illustra- 
tion of this screen. A heavy wire is wrapped spirally around the vanes, 
making another cylinder varying in diameter from 24 to 36 inches. 
Around the wrapped cylinder on top of the wire is attached a wire gauze 
of 24 wires to the inch, which holds back the sand while permitting the 
water to enter. The vanes extend below the bottom of the pipe and are 
attached to a bottom cap, thus leaving on open space for the water to 




Fig. 5.— Shallow Well Screen at Chesterville. 



36 EiCE Ii;ric4ation in Texas. 

enter the bottom of the central wooden cylinder. The suction pipe of 
the pump is attached to the wooden cylinder near top of the ?creen. A 
good well and a good screen are the sine qua iion for a successful well 
plant. All failures can be traced to their absence. This is the reason 
that active plants of 1901 are idle in 1903. They constitute the founda- 
tion stone of success in a prairie rice farm. Without them the biggest 
pumps in the State could not raise water. Many plants in Texas in the 
last two years have been started at the wrong end. Elaborate canals^ 
excellent machinery, fine black hog-wallow land are futile without suffi- 
cient water of the right kind. 

The acreage from well systems in the section between Chesterville and 
Hungerford is shown in the following: Hudson & Ayres, 165 acres; W. 
W. Miller, 200 acres; E. B. Dobbins, 100 acres; J. E. Ervin. 40 acres; 
Adam Adams, 80 acres; John Linderholm, 550 acres; J. C. Townlej^ 300 
acres; C. T. Malmquist, 60 acres; W. S. Strickland, 100 acres; Geo. 
McLain, 150 acres; Geo. Gray, 400 acres; Bernard Eice Co., 310 acres; 
H. Cordz, 300 acres; Paul Jockets, 80 acres; McBride & Lester, 100 
acres; W. S. Moore, 100 acres; L. Pietsch, 170 acres; Longworth & Cay- 
lor, 300 acres; J. M. Everitt. 140 acres; Hudgins & Taylor, 450 acres; 
total, 3890 acres. 

El Campo Plants. 

In that section of Wharton county west of the Colorado river along 
the line of the New York, Texas & Mexican railroad, near the station? 
of Pierce, El Campo and Louise, more well plants are in operation than 
in any other section of Texas. Two systems of wells are used, the shallow 
and the deep. The shallow wells are all of one general type. A pit rec- 
tangular or circular in cross section is excavated to the depth to or above 
which the water will rise, and in the bottom of the pit one or more 
wells are bored through or into the water bearing sand or gravel. Into 
this is placed the screen. The pits vary in depth from 10 to 19 feet, 
and the wells from 40 to 70 feet. The soil is generally black sandy, 
underlaid by clay, which lies over the water bearing sand. The Milner 
well, 1 mile west of Pierce, will serve as a type for the deep wells. This 
well is 180 feet deep, 10-inch bore, and has 60 feet of screen. The log 
of the well shows 14 feet of black soil, thin stratum of red clay, 6 feet 
of quick sand, 4 feet of clay, 16 feet of coarse sand and gravel and three 
thin layers of clay alternating with thicker strata of sand and gravel. 
This well, with its companion shallow well (both in the same pit), con- 
stitute in their combined capacity by far the best well found in the Texas 
rice belt. 

A few typical jdants are here described : 

Blumquist System. — One of the best shallow well plants found in this 
section is that of Fred Blumquist, 1^ miles east of El Campo. His well 
is located in an 8x10 pit, 10 feet deep, and was bored to a depth of 40 
feet from the surface. One 14-horse power gasoline engine operates a 
centrifugal 5-inch Morris pump. The plant exclusive of land cost $970. 
Thirty-five acres were irrigated in 1901, producing 741 sacks. 4 bushels 
each. He sold this rice for $3.35 to $3.50 per sack. His plant thus paid 
double for his first outlay. 

Highee System. — E. E. Higbee during 1900 irrigated 98 acres of Hon- 
duras rice, yielding 1500 sacks. His soil is black hog-wallow. His well 



Rice Irrigation ix Texas. 3^1 

is 48 feet deep, the water rising to within 13 feet of the surface. The 
plant is 1 mile east of El Canipo, and consisted in 1901 of a 6-inch Vau- 
Wie pump and 2o-horse power Case engine. 

Brunes ^Si/titeni. — The plant of Chris. Brunes is just east of the Beard 
plant. It consists of a o-inch Morris pump operated by a 2U-horse power 
Advance traction engine. The well is 4-8 feet deep, the water rising to- 
within 19 feet of the surface. The lift is 24 feet and the capacity esti- 
mated at 800 gallons a minute. The engines, pumps, belts, etc., cost 
$1,500. Fifty acres were irrigated in 1901, yielding 785 sacks, com- 
manding $3.10 a sack. During the season of 1902, 105 acres were irri- 
gated. 

Norditi's System. — P. H. Nordin's plant is 2 miles north of El Campo. 
The well is 48 feet deep, the water being 20 feet below the surface. He- 
uses a 20-horse power J. I. Case traction engine and a 6-inch horizontal 
centrifugal pump. The capacity is estimated to be 700 gallons a minute 
under a head of 21 feet. The engine and pumps cost $1,350. Fifty acres 
were irrigated in 1901, yielding 413 sacks. The plant irrigated 100 acres 
this season. 

•7. B. Carlson's System. — The pit of the well is 8 feet in diameter and 
25 feet deep; the bored part of the well is 27 feet, making a total depth 
of 52 feet. The pump, a 6-inch Van Wie, is in the bottom of the pit, 
and has a lift of 26 feet. It is operated by a 16-horse power Fairbanks- 
Morse gasoline engine. A test made at this plant shows that it requires 
46 gallons of gasoline each twenty-four hours, or nearly 3 gallons to the 
horse power. In carload lots the gasoline costs 12 cents a gallon, deliv- 
ered at El Campo. A second pumping plant run by a traction engine is 
conducted by Mr. Carlson. One hundred and seventy-five acres were- 
irrigated in 1902. 

Leech System. — One of the most up-to-date well plants in this section 
is that of J. W. Leech, 2^ miles northeast of El Campo. He operates 
two plants 300 feet apart. His wells are of a total dejjth of 60 feet, and 
have a 16-inch screen 20 feet long at the bottom of the well. At each 
plant the 6-inch Van Wie centrifugal pump is located in a pit 20 feet 
deep and is operated by a 22-horse power Fairbanks-]\Iorse gasoline 
engine. The actual capacity of these plants was found to be 1000- 
minute-gallons each, and they watered 160 acres of rice this season. The 
yield was 2268 sacks, which was sold for $3.30 per sack, or the total crop 
for $7,284.40. The crop paid all expenses and left a profit of $6,500. 
This was a clear profit of $40.67 per acre for the first year's crop. 

Emhry System. — The farm of J. E. Embry is 4^ miles east of El 
Campo, and. the soil is a black hog-wallow. 90 acres of which were irri- 
gated in 1901. yielding 625 sacks. The pit is 4x16 feet l)y 6 feet deep. 
Two 8-inch wells were bored in the pit to a depth of 40 feet below the- 
ground surface, and the water rose to the bottom of the pit. One 18- 
horsc power gasoline enfrine operates a 6-inch Morris centrifugal pump. 

Shult System. — Six miles east of El Campo Oscar Shult irrigated 100' 
acres in 1901, which produced 858 sacks. The water was furnished by 
a 14-inch wall 39 feet deep. The pit at this well is 8x9 feet and 9.5 feet 
deep, leaving the bored part of the well 30 feet deep. An 18-horse power- 
gasoline engin* furnished the power to operate a 6-inch horizontal cen- 
trifugal pump. The soil is a black hog-wallow% and' 1}^ busheh of Japan* 
and U of Honduras were sowed per acre. 



38 EicE Irrigation in Texas. 

Wharton County Acreage. 

Well plants east of Colorado: W. S. Strickland, 100 acres; Geo. 
McLain, 150 acres; Geo. Gray, 400 acres; C. B. Sloat, 210 acres; H. 
Cordz, 300 acres; Paul Jockets, 80 acres; McBride & Lester, 100 acres; 
W. H. Moore, 70 acres; L. Pietsch, 170 acres; Longworth & Caylor, 300 
acres; Hudgins & Taylor, 450 acres; J. M. Everitt, 140 acres; total, 
2470 acres. 

Well plants west of river : 0. R. Johnson, 150 acres ; Oscar Nelson, 
60 acres; A. Denielsen, 80 acres; Fred Blumquist, 120 acres; A. P. 
Olsen, 60 acres; R. E. Higbee, 70 acres; X. Thompson, 200 acres; A. 
Bergiund, 50 acres; T. J. Rolf, 40 acres; Axel Bard, 60 acres; J. W. 
Leech, 160 acres; W. Pf. Vaugh, 100 acres; J. R. Embry, 75 acres; John- 
son & Jensen, 70 acres; Oscar Schult, 250 acres; James Milner, 750 
acres; P. A. ISTelson, 50 acres; A. P. Borden (two plants), 90 acres; N. 
J. Sunwall, 50 acres; Mr. Barnhart, 250 acres; W. S. Wood et al., 300 
acres; Chris Brimes, 105 acres; P. H. Nordin, 105 acres; Boehm Bros., 
60 acres; J. B. Carlson, 175 acres; Nelson Bros., 200 acres; Fritz Bender, 
60 acres; A. E. Carson, 75 acres; Woolsey Estate, 120 acres; A. S. 
Thompson, 75 acres; 0. B. Scroggins, 50 acres; W. S. Lewis, 75 acres; 
E. G. Sterner, 150 acres; L. Cahn, 60 acres; John Bacek, 30 acres; Wil- 
liam Neizer, 50 acres; Frank Garetzky, 50 acres; John Wetzel, 40 acres; 
T. A. Hill, 120 acres; total, 4635 acres. 

Plants near Louise: W. G. Davis, 60 acres; G. W. Barnett, 50 acres; 
Otto Peterson, 40 acres; E. M. Clark, 400 acres; Sadler & Rome, 250 
acres ; Sadler & Thomason, 200 acres ; Sadler & Thomas, 240 acres ; total, 
1280 acres. When visited in July, the Davis and Peterson plants were 
the only ones that were watering all the rice they had in. 

A successful typical well here has hardly been found. The well of W. 
G. Davis presented some peculiarities. At 96 feet deep a granite-like 
rock was encountered, and the drill cut through a 4-foot layer of this, 
making the well 100 feet deep in all. The suction pipe was set directly 
on top of this rock, and no screen was used. The well furnished more 
than ample supply of clear, fresh water. The machinery consists of a 
22-horse power Foos gasoline engine and a 6-inch Morris pump. Sixty 
acres of Japan rice were irrigated during the season of 1902, but the well 
had water for double this acreage. 

JACKSON COUNTY. 

Ganado Plants. — I am indebted to N. P. Mauritz, of Ganado, for the 
data in regard to the plants in Jackson county. The acreage around 
Ganado was as follows: N. P. Mauritz, 200 acres; D. B. Mayfield, 50 
acres; Mr. Boquette, 60 acres; A. W. Everitt, 50 acres; L. Ward, 70 
acres; total, 430 acres. 

The Mauritz plant has three wells of depths of 51, 88 and 117 feet, 
respectively. The water is raised by Fairbanks gasoline engines and 
6-inch centrifugal pumps. The Mayfield plant plant consists of a 25- 
horse power portable steam engine and a 6-inch centrifugal pump, and 
a 70-foot well. At the Boquette plant a 22-horse power traction engine 
operates a vertical centrifugal 6-inch pump, raising the water out of the 
80-foot well and irrigating the 60 acres of rice. At the Everitt plant a 
20-horse power engine, a 40-horse power boiler, an 8-inch centrifugal 



EiCE Irrigation in Texas. 39 

pump raises the water out of the 117-foot well to the lUO acres of rice. 
It is reported that Mr. L. Ward, of Jackson county, has OU acres of rice. 

Lane City Plant. — Eight miles below Wharton, and surrounding Lane 
City, is the rice farm of the Bay Prairie Irrigation Company (often 
called the Lane Company). The pumping plant is located on the banks 
of the Colorado river, from which it takes its water. There are in all 
three pumping plants. The river plant, show^n in Plate V, has a lift of 
33 feet, and consists of two 54-inch Van Wie pumps operated by a Bates- 
Corliss 250-horse power engine. The capacity is estimated at 120,000 
minute-gallons, and the engineer, L. E. Beadle, estimates that it will 
require 8 gallons per minute for each acre, but he has provided for an 
emergency of 10. There are two flumes, one at the river and the other 
across Jarvis creek. The former is 5x13 feet, 183 feet long, while the 
latter is 4x20 feet and 350 feet long. There are 34^ miles of main canals 
and laterals varying in width from 80 to 120 feet. At the second lift 
of 7 feet a 250-horse power compound engine operates a 45-inch centri- 
fugal pump which has a capacity of 50,000 minute-gallons. At the third 
lift an Atlas-Corliss of 300-horse power operates a 24-iuch Van Wie 
pump, which, with a lift of 3^ feet, is estimated to have a capacity of 
20,000 minute gallons. The water is carried under the tracks of the 
Cane Belt railroad by terra cotta and timber inverts. Under the first 
lift 9500 acres are under cultivation, under the second 5000, and under 
the third 1500, making a total of 16,000, and 15,000 acres of this were 
irrigated in 1902. 

Bay City Plants. — jSTear Bay City, in Matagorda county, eight large 
companies have opened up extensive rice farms, as shown in Fig. 6. 
The Moore-Cortes Canal Company has installed its plant 6 miles from 
Bay City on the west side of the river. Their pumping plant, shown in 
Plate VI, consists of one 300-horse power Vilter-Corliss engine operating 
a 30-inch Ivens pump, which, under the lift of 12 feet, has an estimated 
capacity of 56,000 gallons per minute. "The main canal is 7 miles long 
and 100 feet wide. The laterals 10 miles long with a width of 40 feet. 
There were 5500 acres irrigated in 1901, yielding 10 sacks per acre. In 
1902 the company irrigated 10,000 acres. 

Bay City Company's System. — The pumping station (Fig. B, Plate 
VII) of the Bay City Irrigation Company (Victor LaTulle, manager) 
is 3 miles north of Bay City, and takes its water from a lake that is 
connected with the Colorado river. The pumping plant consists of two 
140-horse power Erie City engines operating two 24-inch Morris pumps, 
which, under the lift of 13 feet, has an estimated capacity of 50.000 
minute-gallons. There are 7 miles of canals, 150 feet center to center 
of embankment. The cost of the plant exclusive of land was about $30,- 
000. In 1902, 5000 acres of rice were irrigated. 

Adjoining the lands of the Bay City Company are those of the Mata- 
gorda Company. The pumping plant of the latter is 2 'miles northwest 
of Bay City and consists of one Greenwald 650-horse power engine and 
one lOO-horse power Nagle engine. There are two Worthington 36-inch 
conoidal pumps, which, under the lift of 10 feet, have an estimated 
capacity of 102,000 minute gallons. These pumps are driven by ^lanila 
rope transmi?ision. Beaumont oil is used for fuel, and is received through 
a pipe line 3 miles long, which has its intake on the Cane Belt railroad. 
The water is pumped from a lake which is connected with the Coloraido 
river. During the season of 1903 the company irrigated 9000 acres. A 




Fig. 6. — Map of Canals below Wharton Texas. 



IJicE Irrigation ix Texas. 41 

view of the pump plant of the ^latagorda Company is shown in the fron- 
tispiece. This was taken before the buikling was completed. 

Colorado Canal Coinpany. — Xear the Matagorda plant is that of the 
Colorado Canal Company-. This plant is located on an intake connecting 
with a lake, which in turn at certain stages of the river connects with it. 
The machiner}- consists of a Murray Bros. 200-horse power compound 
condensing engine and a Connersville blower pump with discharge pipe 
33x96 inches. The lift varies from 8 to 12 feet, depending upon the 
stages of the river and lake. It requires 20 barrels of Beaumont oil per 
day, which costs at Bay City 43 cents per barrel, making a total cost of 
$8.60 per day for fuel. The capacity of the plant is 50,000 minute-gal- 
lons. During the present season 5300 acres were under contract. 

The Nile Valley System. — The Nile Valley plant is on the banks of 
the Colorado river less than -} mile from the Colorado Company. This 
plant (Plate VIII, Fig. A) takes its water directly from the Colorado 
river ^ mile above the head of the famous raft. Two 80-horse power 
Duplex engines operate the two 30-inch Morris pumps against the maxi- 
mum lift of 8 feet. The canal of this company forms a levee and serves 
to protect Bay City and the lands l)elow. Twentv-two barrels of Beau- 
mont oil are used per day. Twenty-iive hundred acres were irrigated in 
1902 from this canal. 

Steivart Canal. — At the Stewart plant 12 miles below Bay City an 80- 
horse power engine operates a 24-inch Morris pump against a maximum 
lift of 21 feet. Seventeen hundred acres were irrigated bv this canal in 
1902. 

Sexton Plant. — The Sexton plant uses a simple 80-horse power Green- 
wald engine and a Menge pump under a lift varying from 18 to 20 feet. 
This plant irrigated only 500 acres this season. It is located several 
miles below Bay City on the east side of the Colorado river. 

Cleveland Plant. — Sixteen miles south of Bay City, S. J. Cleveland 
irrigated 160 acres of rice from the Colorado. His plant consists of a 
22-horse power traction engine, which operates a 6-inch ]\rorris centrifu- 
gal pump against a lift of 17 feet. 

Planters' Canal. — The pumping plant of the Planters' System is 
located on the west side of the river below the Moore-Cortes, and its 
main canal crosses that of the Moore-Cortes by an inverted flume or 
siphon, and irrigates land to the west and north of the latter system. 
During the season of 1902 this company irrigated 950 acres of rice. 

Summary of Matagorda Plants. — Bay City Irrigation Company, 5000 
acres; Matagorda County Pice Co., 9000 acres; Colorado Company, 5300 
acres; Nile Valley Company, 2500 acres: Stewart Canal Comnany, 1700 
acres; Sexton Canal Com]ianv, 500 acres; "^^oore-Cortes, 10,000 acres; 
Planters' Canal Companv, 950 acres: Prairie Bluff Companv, 350 acres; 
S. J. Cleveland, 160 acres: total, 35,460 acres. 

DE AVITT COUNTY. 

Buchel System. — The only water power plant in Texas that irrigates 
rice is that of Otto Buchel, 3 miles north of Cuero. A masonry dam 
across the Guadalupe river produces an effective head of 10 feet. This 
is one of the most substantial dams in Texas, and it cost with its equip- 
ment $100,000. The power is generated by 50-inch turliines, which oper- 
ated the pumps to raise the water into an adj^icent reservoir. An auxil- 



4:2 Rice Irrigation in Texas. 

iary steam plant of iOO-horse power is used for supplementing the energy 
generated by the water plant. This plant furnishes power for three rice- 
farms — that of Mr. Buchel, Schleicher & Crouch, and Eathbone & Wof- 
ford. The farm of Schleicher & Crouch is above that of Buchel, and 
on the east side of the river. The^power for operating the pump is trans- 
mitted electrically from the Buchel power plant. The farm of Rathbone 
& Wotford is on the west side of the river, and also receives its power by 
electric transmissions from the Buchel power plant. In all, 750 acres 
of rice were irrigated at these farms in 1903. 

VICTORIA COUNTY. 

The plant of the Victoria Rice and Irrigation Company is located 10 
miles south of Victoria, and takes its water from the Guadalupe on the 
east side. At the first lift on the river there are two 325-horse power 
Brownell engines ojjerating the pumps against a lift of 33 feet. The 
river plant delivers the water into a flume 1^00 feet long and this 
empties into a reservoir 34x135 by 9 feet deep. The second lift is 41-| 
feet, and two 535-horse power Corliss engines operate the pumps. The 
second flume is 400 feet long and delivers the water into the main canal. 
There are 5 miles of 100-foot canals, 3 miles of 75-foot laterals and 3 
miles of 60-foot laterals. The highest point of land to be irrigated is 
63 feet above the ordinary water level of the river, and there is a fall of 
18 inches from the second lift to this highest land. Twenty-seven hun- 
dred acres were irrigated in 1903. Wood is used as a fuel at present, 
but it is the intention to substitute Beaumont oil soon, transmitting it 
down the canal by boat to the plant. 

Four miles west of Victoria, Harry Rathbone has 60 acres in Japan 
rice this season. He obtains the water from Pridham's lake. A 60-horse 
power engine operates the 5-inch centrifugal pump under a lift of 8 
feet. The soil is sandy river bottom. 

Twelve miles above Victoria, Jno. T. Rusk has a well plant rice farm, 
but the lateness in obtaining water renders its acreage doubtful, for the 
well could not supply sufficient water for the rice. 

BROW^fSVILLE IRRIGATIO^^ SYSTEM. 

The center of rice culture in Texas takes its way considerably west- 
ward for 1908, on account of the big irrigation system near Brownsville 
on the Lower Rio Grande. During 1901 this system was experimental, 
consisting of the machinery of an unused irrigation plant. The experi- 
ment was so successful, however, that the company, the Brownsville Land 
and Irrigation Company (W. M. Ratcliff, manager), has made plans to 
extend the system on a large scale, at a cost $350,000. The plant is 5-| 
miles below Brownsville. Rice, sugar and cotton will be raised by irri- 
gation. The plant now consists of one pump, having 38-inch suction 
and 84-inch discharge pipes, and an estimated capacity of 80 second-feet 
under the lift of 11^ feet. The horse power of the engine, if actual, 
ought to treble this discharge. The water is first pumped into a flume 
3 feet by 18 feet by 40 feet long, and then is delivered into the canals. 
The main canal is 12 miles long and 130 feet wide, and there are 16 



Plate ^'I. 




^■■. ^ -"--**^i^-^ ^— ' ^ !' 








Moore-Cortes Punipiiifj; PIhut. 



Platk VII. 




Fig. a.— Market Scene. 




Fig. B. -Bay City Company's Plant and Canal. 




Corrections. 

The paragraph with reference to the TreaHway Canal 
Company should read: "The Tieadway Canal Company 
will take its water from the Pine Island Bayou" etc, etc. 
In stating the acreage of this company a typographical 
error occurred. It should have been 55000 acres instead ot 
25000. 



000 



<5e> ''.0 



KiCE Irrigation in Texas. 43 

miles of laterals 100 feet wide. The fuel used is mesquite ■wood. During 
the season of 1902, 3000 acres were irrigated by this company. 

SUMMARY BY COUNTIES. 

Jefferson county 44,380 acres. 

Matagorda county 35,460 acres. 

Wharton county ' 33,600 acres. 

Liberty county 16,200 acres. 

Colorado county . 11,450 acres. 

Orange county 10,850 acres. 

Harris county 9,100 acres. 

Chambers county 9,000 acres. 

Fort Bend county 8,830 acres. 

Brazoria county 3.150 acres. 

Cameron county 3,000 acres. 

Victoria county 2.770 acres. 

Austin county 1,230 acres. 

Galveston county 800 acres. 

Washington county 780 seres. 

DeWitt county ..." 750 acres- 
Jackson county 430 acres. 

Waller county 400 acres. 

Total 182,170 acres. 

In regard to this summary, it should be stated that this is the acreage 
sported as sowed. It does not represent the amount watered or har- 
ed. It is very probable that the effective acreage was not over 150,- 
,;. 

In addition to the systems described above, there will be several big 

in+s operating in 1903. The Treadway Canal Company will take its 

• from the J^eches river northwest of Beaumont and irrigate land 

,a ich side of the Southern Pacific railroad. It is contemplated to 

yrr 35,000 acres in cultivation by this canal. The canals are already 

unuvi construction. 

The Texas Land and Irrigation Company are installing a plant to take 
its water from the Brazos river northeast of Wallace. Its canal, already 
under construction, will extend in a southerly direction, and it is 
intended to bring the land between Wallace, Bosenberg and East Bernard 
under canal. 

The Illinois Irrigation Company proposes to take out a canal from 
the Brazos river north of Sealy near San Felipe and irrigate lands north 
and south of Sealy. 

The San Jacinto Eice and Irrigation Company expects to put in a 
plant on the San Jacinto river east of Houston in 1903. 

The Wallace-Radford Company intends to irrigate lands to the east of 
Eagle Lake by putting in a canal system, taking its water from the Colo- 
rado river. 



44 Rice Irrigation in Texas. 



APPEI^DIX A. 



EICE lERIGATION IN JAPAN. 

Kiee is grown throughout Japan with success as far north as Tsugarn 
Strait, latitude 41-30 degrees, it being a summer crop, and in its term 
of development — usually six months from (Ma}' to October) — it requires 
an average temperature of at least 68 degrees F., and a soil saturated 
with water, at least in the early half of its growth, except for one variety, 
known as upland rice. The upland rice (oryza montana), called "okabo^^ 
by the Japanese, which grows on elevated or sloping ground, flourishes 
upon the moisture supplied by rain, and matures in about four months, 
This variety is of minor importance compared with the common rice 
(urvclii) and glutinous rice {"mochigome") grown in wet fields. 

Throughout Japan the rice farmers' work generally begins in April 
with the laying out of one corner of the field as a seed bed. To this end 
the ground is first dug over with a long bladed hoe, then leveled and 
surrounded with a little smoothed and hardened wall of earth, about one 
foot in height and width. A small gutter or irrigation channel is 
brought into connection to flood the bed, as may be required. A favorite 
manure is the slime dug from a neighboring canal, if one is near. The 
seed bed is covered with this to a depth of several inches. In default of 
such slime, ashes from wood or straw and other quick working fertilizers, 
such as bean cake, compost and faecal matter, are used. Next the dam 
is broken at some point and water admitted, until the bed is covered to 
a depth of from two to three inches, when the seed is scattered by hand 
over its surface. In many cases it is soaked in water during several days 
before sowing. The grains of rice sink quickly to and into the muddy 
bottom. The water soon evaporates or sinks into the ground, and in the 
absence of rain is promptly renewed from the irrigation ditch. Fre- 
quently, however, the seed bed is flooded only at night and left dry by 
day. Thus it is protected against cold, while enjoying the warming 
influence of the sun. Within about four weeks, if the weather be favora- 
ble, the sprouts reach a height of six or seven inches and are ready for 
transplanting. 

Nearly every one of the thousands of streams fed by melting snows of 
the mountains is tapped and diverted in its course to the sea to irrigate 
the rice fields, which upon terrace after terrace fill the valleys and spread 
over the plains. These fields are subdivided into plots, seldom exceeding 
a quarter of an acre in area, separated from each other by raised banks 
of earth from one to two feet in width. The smallness of these plots the 
abundance and cheapness of labor have thus far effectively prevented the 
introduction ofUabor-saving machinery, and rice in Japan is now sown, 
raised and harvested in precisely the same manner as that which pre- 
vailed two thousand years ago. 

Near Osaka and in a few other localities the ground is broken by a 
clumsy, antique plow, drawn by an ox, but the usual tools for this pur- 
pose are spades, long bladed hoes and mattocks. Green manure, consist- 
ing of grass and weeds, together with straw and lime, is now worked into 



l?K'i': TnuiGATiON IN Tp:xas. 45 

the soil, water is let in and tlie field thoroughly hoed until the mud 
becomes homogenous and free from lumps. In a few weeks the manure 
decomposes and all traces of it disappear. 

From the seed beds the sprouts are carried to the fields, where the 
farmer, his wife, children and all available relatives and dependants, 
wading knee deep in mud and water, take each four or five sprouts at 
a time and plant them together in a bunch. The bunches are located 
about eight inches apart, and this patient, back-breaking process is fol- 
lowed exclusively over the 6,958,885 acres of Japanese rice fields. There 
are, on an average, about 2000 Imnches to an acre. [99,000 ? | 

Close attention and much hard work must be given to the fields, the 
supply of water must be kept uniform, plants that show weakness or 
failure to take root must be replaced by fresh ones, by hand all sprout- 
ing weeds are removed, and by hand the mud about the roots of each 
bunch is frequently stirred. 

Harvest follows usually in October. The stalks are cut close to the 
ground, the farmer grasping the bunch in bis loft hand and cutting with 
a small sickle. Bundles are tied up and hung over poles or upon the 
trunks of adjacent trees, or conveyed immediately to the farm yard. 

Threshing is accomplished by drawing the stalks through a row of 
upright iron teeth, like a hatchet used for cleaning hemp. Another 
method is simply to strike the panicles against the edge of a tub or bar- 
rel. The flail is sometimes used also. 

Winnowing is generally done by one person pouring the mingled grain 
and chaff from a flat basket, held aloft in front of two large winged fans, 
which are worked rapidly by an assistant. A Ijoxed wheel fan is fre- 
quently employed. 

The husk is almost invariably separated from the grain by pounding 
in a wooden mortar with a heavy wooden pestle. This pestle is usually 
swung in hand. Frequently it is attached to a long heavy beam, the 
end of which is raised and let fall like a seesaw by leg power. Water 
power is often utilized, and within recent years a number of steam power 
rice cleaning mills have been erected. Eice is transported and stored 
throughout the country in straw bags, holding a little less than two 
bushels each. 

The average product of rice per acre in Japan is 28{ bushels. The 
average annual yield of the entire empire during the past decqde is esti- 
mated at 228,819,820 bushels. Average annual yield during the past 
decade 196,588.111 bushels. Average product per acre 28-|. Area of 
rice fields in 1899, 6,958,855 acres. Area of empire, not inclviding For- 
mosa, 94,498,066 acres. Population of empire, not includins: Formosa, 
on December 31, 1898, latest census, 4^,7f^0.f^^r,.—Co7npiled hi/ Col. S. 
F. B. Morse. 



46 EiCE Irrigation in Texas. 



APPENDIX B. 



TEXAS lERIGATION LAW. 

A water course, as the words are used in this connection, has been 
defined as "a stream usually flowing in a particular direction, though it 
need not flow continually. It may sometimes be dry. It must flow in 
a definite channel having a bed, sides, or banks, and usually discharges 
itself into some other stream or body of water." 27 Wis., 661 ; Cooley 
Torts, 238. 

It will be observed that the water supply need not be sufficient to cause 
the stream to flow all the time. It must flow habitually, though not 
necessarily uninterruptedly. There must be a definite channel; that is, 
a bed or palce where the water passes along over the same depression or 
lower surface, which is bounded or limited by ascertained and definite 
sides or banks. When these things concur, the water thus confined and 
seeking a regular outlet is a water course or stream. Water standing in 
a depression and not flowing is not a stream. Water flowing not in a 
defined channel, as surface water after a rain, is not a stream. In our 
changeable climate it is sometimes difficult to determine the question as 
a fact regarding any particular body of water. Sometimes there is a 
w^ell-defined channel, but no water except immediately after rains; again 
there are channels down which water fiows frequently, but not contin- 
uously. How often it is to run and how long during the year must be 
answered from the facts in each case. If there is a well-defined channel 
down which water passes usually — habitually — it is enough, though it 
may sometimes be dry. If, however, it is usually dry, with water flowing 
in it only occasionally, it is not a stream. 

The water passing in these streams is not owned by any one. The pro- 
prietors of the land crossed by or bordering on the stream have legal 
rights in its use, but have no property in the water itself. These rights, 
like all others, have their correlative duties, and the proprietors of the 
several estates must have regard at all times to the obligations under 
which each rests toward the other. All persons who own land along a 
stream are coproprietors in its use. These uses are of two kinds — domes- 
tic or natural on the one hand, and artificial or commercial on the other 
hand. As to the first, the right of use is very extensive, and the pro- 
prietor who first gets access to the water lawfully may completely exhaust 
it in these natural or domestic uses without incurring liability in so 
doing. It is not so with the second — the artificial or commercial. Here 
no one has an exclusive privilege. The upper proprietor can use it for 
these purposes, provided that after this use he permits it to leave his 
land at the same place, in the same quantity, and of the same quality 
that it would have but for such use. 

It is apparent that the rights and liabilities of the parties vary greatly 
as the use made of the water is of the one or the other classes. It there- 
fore becomes imporant to understand what uses fall in each class. 
Domestic or natural purposes embrace drinking purposes for one's family 
and his own domestic animals, culinary purposes, and washing, and all 



KiCE Irrigation in Texas. 47 

the uses about one's premises necessary to sustain life. Artificial or 
commercial uses are all those in which water is not used directly to sus- 
tain life or to give comfort, but is a means of pecuniary profit or indi- 
rect means of comfort. This seems to be the line of separation. It works 
out dilTerent results in different localities. It seems to be considered 
everywhere that the uses mentioned under the head of domestic purposes 
are such, and that for any of these purposes the upper proprietor or the 
one first getting lawful access to the water may use it to the entire 
exhaustion of the supply. — Judge John C. Toivnes. 

RHODES vs. WHITEHEAD, 27 TEXAS; APPEAL FROM BEXAR COUNTY, 1863. 

Among other points decided were the following: (1) The ap])ropria- 
tion of water for natural uses, such as for the use of people and cattle, 
and for household purposes, which must be absolutely supplied, can 
afford no ground for complaint by the lower proprietors, even if it were 
entirely consumed. (.2) It may be admitted that the purpose of irriga- 
tion is one of the natural uses, such as thirst of people and cattle, and 
household purposes, which must be absolutely supplied; the appropria- 
tion of the water for this purpose would, therefore, afford no ground of 
complaint by the lower proprietors if it were entirely consumed. 

TOLLE vs. CORRETH, 31 TEXAS, 365; APPEAL FROM COMAL COUNTY, 1868. 

It was decided: (1) That the colonization laws of Texas and the 
statutes of the State recognize the right to use water for irrigation pur- 
poses. (2) Where the defendant owned the land upon which there was 
a spring he had a right to use the water for the purposes of irrigation; 
provided, he restored it back to its natural channel before it reached the 
lands of the adjoining proprietor, and if the flow was thus weakened so 
as to damage the adjoining proprietor, the defendant was not liable for 
such damage. 

FLEMING vs. DAVIS, 37 TEXAS, 173 ; APPEAL FROM SAN SABA COUNTY, 

1872. 

Syllabus 2. — Irrigation of land, however beneficial in some portions 
of this State, is not one of the natural wants which will justify the owner 
of a head spring in exhausting the water which flows from it, to the 
injury of proprietors lower down on the natural channel of the stream. 
The maxim sic utere tuo ut alienum non loedas applies. The case of 
Telle vs. Correth, 31 Texas, 362, is not understood to have decided a con- 
trary doctrine. 

Syllabus 3. — In the distribution of the water of a natural stream 
among the riparian proprietors the principles of the common law furnish 
the only rules judicially known in this State; and a suit, it seems, can 
not be sustained to partition a natural stream among riparian proprie- 
tors by allotting to each a specified time to appropriate its waters. 

BAKER VS. BROWN, 55 TEXAS. 377; APPEAL FROM SAN SABA COUNTY', 1881. 

Syllabus 1. — The right to use water for purposes of irrigation, when 
its use is not indispensable, but is resorted to for the purpose of increas- 



48 liiCE Irrigation in Texas, 

ing the products of the soil, must be subordinate to the right of a eopro- 
prietor to supply his natural wants and those of his family, tenants and 
stock by using the water for necessary and domestic purposes. 

Syllabus 2: Limitations; riparian rights. — The rights of a riparian 
proprietor to the use of the water may be restricted or lost by grant or 
by prescription, under such adverse, continuous, uninterrupted user and 
occupation by another as would, by analogy to the statute of limitations, 
bar the right of entry upon lands. Ten years' use and occupation woukl 
in Texas be the period of prescription. 

MUD CREEK IRRIGATION CO. VS. VIVIAN, T-i TEXAS, 171 ; APPEAL FROM 
KINNEY COUNTY^ 1889. 

Syllabus 1 : Irrigation corporations. — An irrigation company char- 
tered under general law and whose charter designtites the locality of its 
canals acquires thereby no exclusive right to the use of the waters of a 
flowing stream on which it depends for its supply. By virtue of the 
charter of its incorporation, which authorized the acquisition by gift, 
purchase or condemnation of all property necessary to the irrigation 
enterprise, it secured the right to obtain in the manner designated the 
privilege of using the water of a stream, but the charter did not proprio 
vigore confer that right in the absence of a purpose, gift or condemna- 
tion 

Syllabus 2: Constitutional law. — The Legislature can not destroy or 
impair the vested rights of a riparian proprietor by conferring a special 
privilege on an irrigation company without providing for the payment 
of a just compensation. 

Syllabus 3: Riparian proprietors; irrigation cases revietred. — Tolle 
vs. Correth, 31 Texas, 365, and Fleming vs. Davis, 37 Texas, 173, 
reviewed, and the doctrine announced that a riparian proprietor has the 
right to divert water flowing along or through his land to purposes of 
irrigation, although the effect of such use is to leave to a riparian pro- 
prietor on the stream below him a supply of water insufficient for irri- 
gation. ISTo opinion is expressed as to whether water can be used by a 
riparian proprietor for irrigation so as to render insufficient the supply 
for ordinary use to those owning land lower down the stream. 

Syllabus 4-' Prescription. — A prescriptive right to use water for irri- 
gation will be acquired by the uninterrupted use of the water for such 
purpose under a claim of right. But this right can only be enforced 
against riparian proprietors on the stream below when the water has been 
continuously used for ten years under a claim of right. It can not be 
asserted against a riparian proprietor by or through whose land the water 
flowed before it reached the point where it is appropriated by the one 
claiming the prescriptive right. 

Syllabus 5: Presumption of grant. — The presumption of a grant 
from long continued enjoyment can exist only as against those who might 
have prevented or interrupted the use of the subject of the supposed 
grant. 

In rendering the opinion in this case Judge Gaines said : "It is true 
that the Act of March 10, 1875, provides "that 'any * * * canal 
company shall have the free use of the waters and streams of the State/ 
but the provisions of that act applied as well to ordinary companies as 
to corporations. Laws Second Called wSession Fourteenth Legislature, 



KiCE Irrigation in Texas. 49 

77. Besides, we are of the opinion that the provisions could b(! held only 
to apply to streams upon the public lands of the State, since the Legisla- 
ture had no power to take away or impair the vested rights of riparian 
owners without providing for the payment of a just compensation. If 
the defendants or the owners of the land along the stream in contro- 
versy had the right to use the water for the purpose of irrigating their 
lands, that right remained unaffected by the plaintiff's incorporation or 
by the legislation of the State passed for the encouragement of irriga- 
tion. It seems to be the rule of the common law that a riparian owner 
has no right to use the water of the stream for irrigating his lands, pro- 
vided it interferes with the uses of the water by those who own the 
lands upon the stream below. That this is a proper rule in England and 
in those States where the rainfall is sufficient for the purpose of agri- 
culture we freely concede, but we are of opinion that in those sections 
where irrigation is necessary for the successful pursuit of farming it 
should not apply. What is not a necessary use in the one case becomes 
necessary in the other. Evan vs. Merriweather, 3 Scam. (Ill), 496. It 
was so held in Tolle vs. Correth, 31 Texas, 365, and though this decision 
was criticised in the subsequent case, Fleming vs. Davis, 37 Texas, 173, 
we are of the opinion that it recognizes a correct rule of law as applied 
to the present case. 

"We think it a matter of common knowledge that there are portions 
of our State where the business of agriculture cannot be successfully 
prosecuted through successive years except by irrigation, and it is to be 
inferred from the allegations of the petition that the section where the 
stream in controversy is situated is of that character. We think, there- 
fore, that the defendants had the right to divert the water which flowed 
in the stream along or through their lands for the purpose of irrigating 
them, although the effect of such use was to leave the plaintiff corpora- 
tion an insutiicient supply for the same purpose. Whether they had a 
right to divert the whole of it and leave an insufficient supply for the 
ordinary use of the lower riparian owners we need not in this case deter- 
mine." 

From these eases it is clear that the purposes named above as domestic 
are regarded as such in this State, and that irrigation ordinarily is not 
such a use, but that if in any particular locality the business of agricul- 
ture can not be successfully prosecuted through successive years except 
by irrigation, such use in such locality may be regarded as domestic, in 
a qualified sense ; that is, so far as to give the right to so use the water, 
even though it may deprive .lower proprietors of the opportunity of simi- 
lar use, though this can not be done to the extent of cutting off the 
supply for drinking water, household purposes, or for stock. 



Pi-ate VIII. 




Fig. a.— Nile Valley Pumpiug Plant. 




Fig. B.— Cottonwood Creek Flume near Bay City. 



HI 

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-»v OF coNVTnl; 



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HoUinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



